Swiss banking giant UBS in 2009 agreed to a $780 million settlement of federal criminal charges that it had helped wealthy American clients evade taxes.(Photo: Alessandro Della Bella, AP)
A Palm Beach heiress and charity benefactor pleaded guilty Tuesday to
using foreign bank accounts to hide more than $43 million from the IRS
in one of the largest cases in the continuing U.S. crackdown on offshore
tax evasion.
Mary Estelle Curran, 79, will pay nearly $21.7
million in penalties after admitting she filed two years of false tax
returns. She failed to disclose her Switzerland and Liechtenstein
accounts on federal tax returns from 2001 to 2007, according to a
Justice Department announcement.
Curran faces a maximum six-year
prison term at a scheduled March 29 sentencing, though a plea agreement
filed in court suggested that the applicable guideline level in her case
would be 30 months to 37 months.
She must also file amended
federal tax returns for 2001 through 2007 and pay $667,716 in overdue
taxes, plus interest and penalties.
"U.S. citizens who seek
to avoid their tax obligations by hiding income in undeclared bank
accounts abroad should by now be fully on notice that they will be held
accountable for their actions, both civilly and criminally," said U.S.
Attorney Wifredo Ferrer of Florida's Southern District.
The
guilty plea and prospect of prison time come in sharp contrast with
Curran's life in a five-bedroom, six-bathroom Palm Beach family home,
which Realtor.com estimates is worth more than $3 million.
Additionally, a 2011 report in the Palm Beach Daily News
shows Curran has given years of support and service to Opportunity Inc.
Early Childhood Center, which provides education to children of needy
families. She also has been a supporter of the Rehabilitation Center for
Children and Adults, a 2010 Palm Beach Daily News report shows.
Curran's attorney, Roy Black, famed for his successful defense of
William Kennedy Smith on rape charges in Palm Beach, did not respond to a
phone message seeking comment.
Curran is the latest of dozens
of offshore banking clients snared in the offshore tax-evasion
crackdown launched by the Justice Department and IRS in 2008. She
inherited the offshore accounts from her husband, Mortimer. He died in
2000, according to a statement of facts filed Tuesday in her court case.
Court records show some of her assets were held in the names of
offshore firms at UBS, a Swiss banking giant that in 2009 agreed to a
$780 million settlement of federal criminal charges that it had helped
wealthy American clients evade taxes.
In 2008, fiduciaries
managing Curran's financial affairs closed the UBS accounts and
transferred the assets to a Liechtenstein bank under a corporate name,
the court records show.
USA Today