Viktor Kordash, Tax Evasion, New York 2014

Grimy Times Exclusive: A New Jersey man was sentenced to three months in prison for failing to report a secret Swiss bank account containing over $1 million, a federal judge ruled in Manhattan federal court.

Viktor Kordash, 64, of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams on [Date Not Specified] in Manhattan federal court. The charges against Kordash stemmed from his failure to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs) with the IRS regarding a secret Swiss bank account he maintained at Wegelin & Co., a Swiss bank formerly headquartered in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Crimes and Charges: Kordash pleaded guilty to willfully failing to file FBARs with the IRS for each of the calendar years from at least 1986 through 2010, disclosing his signatory or other authority over his undeclared account at Wegelin. He was required to identify the financial institution with which his account was held, the type of account, the account number, and the maximum value of the account during the calendar year for which the FBAR was being filed. He willfully failed to do so.

Case Details: Kordash opened an account at Wegelin in the early 1980s, while living in Russia and a Russian citizen. In 1984, he emigrated to the United States and was granted citizenship in 1986. After immigrating to the United States, and after becoming a United States citizen, Kordash continued to maintain his account at Wegelin, and failed to declare it to the IRS, up until approximately November 2010. Kordash used the undeclared account as an operating and investment account for his antique reproductions business, which he operated out of New York, New York.

Financial Impact: Between 2007 and 2010, the high value of Kordash’s undeclared account was over $1.5 million. Further, between at least April 2008 and June 2010, Kordash received a series of cash distributions from the undeclared account from Wegelin’s correspondent account in Stamford, Connecticut, which totaled over $168,000. In November 2010, Kordash closed the undeclared account and transferred the balance to his wife. The balance of the undeclared account at the time of its closure and transfer was nearly $1 million.

Sentence and Outcome: In addition to the sentence of three months in prison, Kordash was also sentenced to three years’ supervised release, and ordered to pay back taxes of over $268,000 and a civil penalty of over $750,000.

Investigation and Prosecution: The case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah E. Paul and Jason H. Cowley are in charge of the prosecution.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/new-jersey-man-sentenced-three-months-prison-manhattan-federal-court-hiding-over-1