John DiCiccio, the acting assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Tax Division, had this to say:
"Dishonest and fraudulent tax professionals, including accountants, attorneys and bankers, should stand up and take note of today's indictment,"
In 2007, Jenkens & Gilchrist admitted it developed and marketed tax shelters that generated more than $1 billion in phony losses. Jenkens and Gilchrist no longer exists, but most of the remaining lawyers and staff joined Hunton & Williams, a national law firm based in Richmond, Va., in April 2007, including Henry Gilchrist.
One of the attorneys indicted, Paul Daugerdas, 58 denies any wrongdoing.
Source: http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/.a/6a00e55044cbaf883401156ff27763970c-pi"Paul Daugerdas firmly believes that the tax advice provided to his clients was well within the scope of then-existing federal tax law," Margarite Wypychowski said in a statement. "He categorically denies any participation in or approval of any wrongdoing in connection with his rendering of professional legal services."
How many times have we seen such a statement from attorneys make massive sums of money marketing and promoting abusive tax shelters only to see them blow up in the faces of their clients who relied on their "expertise" in this area.
In January 2005, Jenkens agreed to pay $81.6 million to clients who had sued over its tax shelter advice.
I suspect that more indictments will be forthcoming on this sort of conduct.
Chris Hellums can be reached via email : ChrisH@pdkhlaw.com
