Ernst & Young indictment unsealed
Last week, the U.S. Atorney’s office unsealed an indictment of Ernst & Young tax partners. The indictment alleges that Robert Coplan, Martin Nissenbaum, Richard Shapiro, and Brian Vaughn created and marketed tax shelters which were fraudulent, for use by individuals with taxable income in excess of $10 or $20 million. The tax shelters were created to improperly eliminate or reduce taxes due to the Internal Revenue Service.
The eight counts in the indictment include: conspiracy to defraud the IRS, tax evasion, making false statements to the IRS, and impeding and impairing the lawful functioning of the IRS.
The E&Y partners were part of a tax shelter development group first called VIPER (Value Ideas Produce Extraordinary Results) and then called SISG (Strategic Individual Solutions Group. It is alleged that the conpirators deceived the IRS about the true facts of the tax shelters, and that they knew discovery of the true facts by the IRS would result in the collection of unpaid taxes, interest, and penalties.
