"Second Florida Yachting Exec Charged In UBS Tax Shelter Probe"

lwrandall · Apr 22, 2009

Very sad to read this. This article didn't state that he did plead guilty to the charge.

Second Florida Yachting Exec Charged In UBS Tax Shelter Probe

By Moe Tkacik - April 15, 2009, 12:07PM

Another rich client of UBS has been charged with using Swiss banking secrecy laws to evade taxes: it's Robert *****, who failed to declare a $3.7 million account with the bank on his 2007 tax return.

Like Steven Michael Rubinstein, who earlier this month became the first UBS client charged in the investigation, ***** is a Florida yacht dealer charged with a single count of tax fraud. The Times specifies that the two are "not connected" except inasmuch as theirs were two of the 285 names the ailing Swiss bank, which today announced it would cut another 7,500 jobs after posting a $1.8 billion loss, handed over to the IRS earlier this year as part of a $780 million settlement into its tax evasion business.

Yachts were a "fertile recruiting ground" for UBS, according to Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS private banker whose "statement of facts" in the criminal probe of his role in the bank's tax evasion business provided the basis for much of the larger investigation. And ***** is a resident of Lighthouse Point, Florida -- also an address used by Birkenfeld's most famous client Igor Olenicoff, the billionaire real estate developer for whom Birkenfeld once laundered cash by traveling to the United States with a toothpaste tube full of diamonds. Birkenfeld's statement confesses to "numerous overt acts [of tax fraud] in Broward County," where both Rubinstein and ***** reside. Both men appear to be cooperating in the investigation.

So who boarded those fancy yachts, one of which can be chartered for the reasonable price of a million dollars a week plus expenses?

Tantalizingly, the Times reports that ***** chartered yachts for "Kuwaiti royals, Russian oligarchs and other global jet-setters" -- many of whom are presumably not subject to American tax laws. But the story is far from over. Any bank that can afford million dollar a week fees to charter yachts in which to lure prospective clients is probably hiding many more millions from the IRS. A source tells the paper:
Click to expand...

ayachtguy · Apr 22, 2009

Who Are Those Guys?

We all know *****, but I haven't seen any news report mention or identify any company or builder with Steven Michael Rubenstein. Anyone know?

Loren Schweizer · Apr 23, 2009

Even more unsettling--anyone ever heard of a real person called Moe since the Three Stooges?

GFC · Apr 23, 2009

As a former UBS employee who recently quit that company it tickled me to no end to see UBS brought to justice and pay the US Government $780 million in fines for their actions.

The releasing of hundreds of names of US residents who held those secret Swiss investment account will likely result in hundreds of civil suits against UBS by the people whose names were released.

FWIW, my partner and I left UBS because we got tired of trying to defend the company's reputation to our clients. We have since joined another firm whose moral compass is more closely aligned with ours.

ayachtguy · Apr 23, 2009

Who Are Those Guys, Mk II?

So, back to the question...who is Rubenstein?

NYCAP123 · Apr 23, 2009

ayachtguy said:

So, back to the question...who is Rubenstein?
Click to expand...

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/steven_michael_rubinstein/

ayachtguy · Apr 23, 2009

And yet again....

Got it.

We all know he's a "yacht builder's accountant"...that's been reported in all the news.

The question, once again but very slowly....WHICH...YACHT....BUILDER???

AMG · Apr 24, 2009

ayachtguy said:

Got it.

We all know he's a "yacht builder's accountant"...that's been reported in all the news.

The question, once again but very slowly....WHICH...YACHT....BUILDER???
Click to expand...

I think you will have a harder time to find a yacht builder, yacht broker or yacht buyer who is NOT asking their accountant to avoid taxes...

RER · Apr 24, 2009

A million dollars a week?

K1W1 · Apr 24, 2009

RER said:

A million dollars a week?
Click to expand...

That's what it says here: http://www.***********.com/Catalog/Yacht/?ID=218

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"Second Florida Yachting Exec Charged In UBS Tax Shelter Probe"

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