A Manhattan tax attorney and a Florida certified public accountant were charged in an eight-count Indictment with engaging in a multi-year tax evasion scheme involving the diversion of millions of dollars of fees from a Manhattan law firm and the failure to report that fee income to the Internal Revenue Service.
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Shantelle P. Kitchen, Special Agent In Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”), announced that HAROLD LEVINE, a Manhattan tax attorney, and RONALD KATZ, a Florida certified public accountant, were charged today in Manhattan federal court.
According to the allegations in the Indictment, HAROLD LEVINE, a tax attorney and former head of the tax department at a major Manhattan Law Firm (the “Law Firm”), schemed with RONALD KATZ, a certified public accountant, to divert from the Law Firm over $3 million in fee income from tax shelter and related transactions that LEVINE worked on while serving as a partner of the New York Law Firm.
LEVINE failed to report that fee income to the IRS on his personal tax returns during the period 2005-2011. For his involvement in this scheme, KATZ received and failed to report to the IRS over $1.2 million in fee income. As part of the fee diversion scheme, LEVINE caused tax shelter fees paid by a Law Firm client to be routed to a partnership entity he co-owned with KATZ and thereafter used those fees – totaling approximately $500,000 – to purchase a home in Levittown, New York.
LEVINE, 58, of New York, New York, and KATZ, 59, of Boca Raton, Florida, are scheduled to be arraigned in magistrate’s court on Monday, October 31. The case was assigned to United States District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, and a conference was set before Judge Rakoff for Tuesday, November 1, 2016, at 11:00 a.m.
LEVINE, who was charged with one count each of obstructing the IRS, conspiracy, tax evasion, and wire fraud, and two counts of making false statements, faces the following penalties, if convicted: 26 U.S.C. ‘ 7212(a) – corruptly endeavoring to obstruct a RULES, with a maximum sentence to be determined.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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