Brian Booker, Tax Evasion, Florida 2024

Brian Booker, a former Certified Public Accountant, has been accused of failing to report foreign bank accounts and filing false documents with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Booker, a former resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, allegedly operated a cocoa trading company from Venezuela, Panama, and his former residence in Fort Lauderdale. According to the superseding indictment, Booker failed to disclose his interest in financial accounts located in Switzerland, Singapore, and Panama on annual Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs) as required by law.

The indictment also alleges that Booker filed false individual income tax returns for tax years 2010 through 2012 that failed to report to the IRS all of Booker’s foreign bank accounts. Additionally, Booker is charged with filing a false “Streamlined Submission” in conjunction with the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures, which falsely claimed that his failure to report all income, pay all tax, and submit all required information returns, such as FBARs, was due to non-willful conduct.

If convicted, Booker faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count relating to his failure to file an FBAR. He also faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison for each of the counts related to filing false tax documents.

Booker is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The case was investigated by special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, and Trial Attorneys Sean Beaty and Alexander Effendi of the Tax Division are prosecuting this case.

Booker owns a cocoa trading company that was organized under the laws of the Republic of Panama. He allegedly operated that company from Venezuela, Panama, and his former residence in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Booker is a former resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

An indictment is an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The crime allegedly occurred in calendar years 2011 through 2013, and the indictment was returned by a federal grand jury.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/former-cpa-indicted-failing-report-foreign-bank-accounts-and-filing-false-documents-irs