The House Ways and Means Committee recently advanced a bill that gives businesses a proposed deadline of January 31, 2024 to file Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims. Known as the Tax Relief for American Families and...more
There are several new developments in the Internal Revenue Service’s ongoing campaign to combat false and fraudulent Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims, including an indefinite extension of the agency’s moratorium on...more
The Justice Department has announced the first-ever False Claims Act settlement with a lender to resolve allegations related to processing a Paycheck Protection Program loan on behalf of an ineligible customer. This...more
9/21/2022
/ CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
DOJ Strike Force ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
FBI ,
Fraud ,
Lenders ,
Money Laundering ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Popular ,
SBA
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has intensified its already aggressive crackdown on fraud related to COVID-19, recently announcing criminal charges against a telemedicine company executive, a physician, marketers and medical...more
6/8/2021
/ CARES Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
FBI ,
Fraud ,
Healthcare ,
OIG ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Popular ,
Provider Relief Fund ,
Telemedicine ,
Virus Testing
While the $525 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), enacted as part of the CARES Act, has undoubtedly helped millions of deserving businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic, it has also provided a unique opportunity for...more
The Internal Revenue Service announced today a significant increase in enforcement actions for syndicated conservation easement transactions, a priority compliance area. According to the announcement, coordinated audits are...more
Following the termination last fall of its immensely successful Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced a new regime to govern all voluntary disclosures regarding tax...more
In a move sure to send shock waves through the offshore banking community, the Justice Department yesterday announced its first criminal conviction for violating the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Adrian Baron,...more
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants – the world’s largest association of accounting professionals – yesterday asked the Internal Revenue Service to issue immediate, updated guidance regarding the tax...more
The Internal Revenue Service has warned taxpayers to be wary of abusive tax shelters, which remain on the annual “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams for 2018. These sophisticated schemes, particularly those involving...more
Calling it the largest sales suppression software case in state history, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the filing of criminal charges last week against the owner of six restaurants for allegedly...more
The Internal Revenue Service has assembled a specialized team of criminal investigators to build criminal tax evasion cases involving users of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to a Bloomberg article entitled “IRS...more
Over the course of the last two months, we have witnessed a flurry of enforcement activity with respect to initial coin offerings and virtual currency fraud schemes by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity...more
Lawmakers in Mississippi are tackling the pervasive use of automated sales suppression devices, commonly known as “zappers,” by businesses to hide a portion of their sales and thereby avoid paying sales tax. Zapper programs...more
On January 18, 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced two enforcement actions as part of a continuing crackdown on virtual currency fraud schemes by numerous federal agencies. (We have previously written...more
Coindesk is reporting that Coinbase — the largest U.S.-based Bitcoin exchange and the subject of a recently-concluded “John Doe” summons dispute with the Internal Revenue Service — is reminding its customers of their U.S. tax...more
Yesterday the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released information from the corporate registries of four more tax havens that were included in the Paradise Papers investigation: Barbados, the Bahamas,...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced yesterday that a California-based company selling digital tokens to investors to raise capital for its blockchain-based food review service halted its initial coin offering...more
Today the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced that it had fined a California card club, Artichoke Joe’s Casino, $8 million for numerous willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act...more
Tomorrow morning (November 17) the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is set to release publicly the first set of comprehensive data from the recent “Paradise Papers” leak. The initial data will...more
In its recently-published 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA), the Drug Enforcement Administration reports that drug trafficking organizations are turning to Bitcoin and other virtual currencies to enable easy...more
In a report to the President recommending actions to eliminate or mitigate burdens imposed on taxpayers by eight specific tax regulations, the Treasury Department indicated that it is considering possible reforms of...more
Earlier this year we wrote about the Justice Department’s continuing efforts to combat fraud in the EB-5 immigrant visa program, with the filing of several federal lawsuits seeking the forfeiture of nine real properties...more
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued an advisory to alert financial institutions of widespread public corruption in Venezuela and the methods Venezuelan senior political figures...more
Two members of Congress have introduced a bill that would exempt from income tax transactions under $600 conducted using Bitcoin or other digital currencies. Currently, the Internal Revenue Service treats digital currencies...more