ALASKA – An Alaska plastic surgeon, who engaged in a scheme to hide and conceal millions of dollars from the courts and his wife of 28 years who was divorcing him, was indicted for tax evasion, federal officials announced Friday.
Michael D. Brandner, an Anchorage physician specializing in plastic surgery, had beey n charged with seven counts of wire fraud on September 2013 by a federal grand jury.
Brandner, if convicted, is facing five years in prison for each of the three counts of tax evasion and up to 20 years for each of the seven wire-fraud charges, officials said.
Brandner evaded taxes for 2008, 2009 and 2010, including making false and misleading statements to IRS special agents and filing false tax returns for each of the three years, officials stated.
In the three false returns, officials said Brandner failed to report financial accounts in Panama and Costa Rica. He also didn’t report foreign interest income of more than $9,000 for 2008, more than $150,000 for 2009, and more than $150,000 for 2010.
The indictment also alleges that Brandner attempted to evade more than $600,000 in federal income taxes over the three years.
Shortly after the divorce was filed, Brandner left Alaska and drove to Central America after converting assets into five cashier’s checks worth over $3,000,000.
Brandner is presumed innocent until he is found guilty.