Federal charges against Dan Rotta, a Florida man, were filed Tuesday. The charges allege he hid over $20 million in offshore Swiss bank accounts and lied to the IRS.Officials announced that Rotta was arrested last week.
He could receive up to five years in prison for each charge if convicted.
Various legal and tax professionals are investigating the case. Rotta is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
From 1985 to 2020, Rotta reportedly kept secret bank accounts in Switzerland, not reporting the income from these accounts on his taxes.
After suspicions arose about banks helping US taxpayers evade taxes in 2008, Rotta supposedly moved his hidden funds between banks to keep them concealed.
In 2011, when the IRS started investigating Rotta for unreported foreign accounts, he denied having these accounts.
However, evidence suggested Rotta received large sums from these accounts, which he didn’t declare.
He presented fake loan documents to the IRS, claiming the money was from non-taxable loans. Rotta involved a friend and cousin in Brazil to support his false claims.
Despite IRS doubts and additional taxes imposed on him, Rotta challenged the IRS’s decision in Tax Court, denying foreign account ownership and using fictitious documents.
The IRS initially revised its decision, but later, suspicions about Rotta’s compliance led him to seek voluntary disclosure in 2019, during which he made false statements.
The International Tax and Financial Crimes group of IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.
Senior Litigation Counsels Sean Beaty and Mark Daly and Trial Attorneys Patrick Elwell and William Montague of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Homer for the Southern District of Florida are prosecuting the case.