Say it Ain’t So- FATCA Goes Criminal
By Anthony Diosdi In United States v. Kyriacou, No. 1:18-cr-001102-KAM (E.D.N.Y. 2018), the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has secured under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) through the guilty plea of Adrian Baron, a former executive of Loyal Bank Ltd. The bank had offices in Budapest, Hungary and the Carribean. Baron was convicted under 18 U.S.C. Section 371 for conspiracy to commit fraud by failing to follow the mandates of FATCA.An Overview of FATCAFATCA was enacted in the effort to combat tax evasion by U.S. persons holding accounts and other financial assets offshore. FATCA requires certain foreign financial institutions (“FFIs”) to report directly to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) information about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers or by foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold substantial ownership interests.…