An 83-year-old Massachusetts man who held Swiss bank
accounts at Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and Wegelin & Co. pleaded guilty
to hiding $5.7 million from U.S. tax authorities. Jacques Wajsfelner admitted
in federal court in Manhattan yesterday that he failed to file Foreign Bank and
Financial Accounts Reports. He will pay civil penalties of $2.84 million and
restitution of $419,940. Under advisory guidelines, he faces 30 months to 37
months in prison at sentencing on Dec. 20.
Since 2009, U.S. prosecutors have charged about 50 U.S. taxpayers
and more than 20 offshore bankers, lawyers and advisers with tax crimes.
Wajsfelner was born in Germany and fled the Nazis as a teenager, according to
Jeffrey Denner, his attorney. He became a U.S. citizen and worked in real
estate and advertising in New York and Boston, Denner told Bloomberg.
“He pleaded guilty to some very bad judgment that he
exercised,” Denner said in a telephone interview. “We are hopeful at his
sentencing that the very serious mitigating factors of his life will be
considered by the court.”
Wajsfelner’s former Swiss adviser, Beda Singenberger, was
indicted last year on a charge of conspiring to help more than 60 U.S.
taxpayers hide $184 million from the Internal Revenue Service in offshore
accounts…
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