Just 10 days ago we wrote about Herve Falciani, a French and Italian citizen wanted by Switzerland for allegedly stealing customer account information. Switzerland wants him to stand trial for theft. The Spanish government, however, says the information possessed by Falciani documents widespread money laundering and tax evasion by HSBC clients. Spain’s National Court ultimately denied Switzerland’s extradition request.

New information revealed by The Economic Times indicates that Fa...
Read Full Article

The IRS believes that there are millions of Americans who have failed to file FBARs; short for Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. Taxpayers with offshore holdings of $10,000 or more are required to report those holdings to the IRS. The duty to report includes people merely having signature authority over a foreign account.

IRS outreach efforts have been quite poor. Many dual nationals, ex pats who are living overseas and foreign born Americans simply don’t understand the FBAR filing requirements. Beginning in 2009, the IRS offered a variety of amnesty programs to he...
Read Full Article

A Chinese woman who masterminded a $70 million Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to death by a Chinese court - possibly by firing squad.  Lin Haiyan, 39, from the Wenzhou province, received the sentence as part of a broader push by Chinese authorities to crack down on the underground lending industry that has found itself awash with cash as part of Chinese stimulus efforts.  Haiyan is the latest of several women who have received a death sentence for their role in investment f...
Read Full Article

A recent headline in IFC Review declared that hundreds of Americans were ripping up their passports to avoid FATCA. FATCA is short for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, the law that will soon require banks and other financial institutions worldwide to report accounts with ties to U.S. taxpayers. The law’s implementation date has already been extended once and is now set to commence in 2014.

IFC quotes IRS figures and says that in the first quarter of 2013, 670 Americans have torn up their passports. They claim most have done so to avoid IRS reporting and FATCA. While the ...
Read Full Article

This week’s spin of the Panel wheel landed imPaneled on a new proceeding that raises subject matter new to imPaneled.  Despite having been raised among the world’s foremost patent litigators (which they would happily tell you themselves), imPaneled has neglected the many patent cases on the Panel dockets–until now.

Some people Read Full Article