Two Charged in Tax Case Tied to UBS, Billionaire (Igor Olenicoff)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | May 14, 2008 | CARRICK MOLLENKAMP, GLENN R. SIMPSON and ALEX FRANGOS

[khnyny]

As part of a widening probe, the U.S. has charged a former UBS AG banker and a Liechtenstein consultant with helping clients avoid taxes by opening secret bank accounts, destroying documents, using Swiss credit cards and filing false tax returns.

One client was billionaire California real-estate developer Igor Olenicoff. Mr. Olenicoff set up a web of secret bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to avoid taxes on $200 million in assets, a person familiar with the U.S. case said. Mr. Olenicoff has been cooperating with investigators in the wake of his December guilty plea to a criminal count of filing a false 2002 U.S. tax return. He was ordered to pay $52 million.

The case provides a rare window into the world of private banking -- the personalized financial services offered to wealthy customers -- where Switzerland's UBS has long dominated. The case could lead to other U.S. clients: The indictment says the two financiers -- former UBS private banker Bradley Birkenfeld and Liechtenstein financial adviser Mario Staggl -- courted rich Americans and helped some of them avoid paying taxes.

The indictments are the latest sign that elaborate tax-evasion schemes available only to the super-rich are teetering toward a collapse. New information in recent months has come from current or former bank employees who possess the names of clients.

The U.S. investigation into the alleged UBS tax schemes comes amid a multinational probe into the role that Liechtenstein, a European principality, played as a tax haven for citizens from at least eight countries. That probe began after a then-employee of a Liechtenstein bank obtained and then began distributing to authorities customer data. Now, multiple countries, including the U.S., are investigating their own citizens for hiding assets in the tiny principality between Austria and Switzerland.

[khnyny]

“Mr. Olenicoff was raised in Iran by Russian émigré parents who moved to the U.S. in the 1950s. He later attended the University of Southern California and became a major player in Southern California real estate after starting his company, Olen Properties, in 1973. Forbes magazine’s list of rich Americans ranked him in 2007 at 286, worth $1.7 billion.”

[2banana]

I know many “uber” wealthy individuals (quote a few are in my family, but, so far it has not rubbed off on me).

They are the MOST liberal and socialist people I have ever known.

And they will do anything to hide their money and assets from the taxman.

I bring it up all the time - “You want these socialist programs and you do everything you can NOT to pay for them.”

I get alot of answers - but they all boil down to “These programs are for the little people, and they should have to pay for them.”

[Mamzelle]

re: They are the MOST liberal and socialist people I have ever known. And they will do anything to hide their money and assets from the taxman.)))

Dittoes--I see the same thing. I'd love a shrink to explain it all to me because the cognitive dissonance really rattles my cage, sometimes.

Maybe you and I should write a book... ;'> or form some kind of ping list. "Arrogant Uber-Wealthy and the Little People They Want to Ruin"

See if any of this is familiar to you--

1) They don't want kids, and they really really love the sacrament of abortion. They hold reeligion in contempt unless it's a church for minorities. They donate huge to PP and have an attitide towards any white person who is pregnant...What did you go and do that for?

2) Excrutiatingly, obvious, cringeworthy-to-watch condescending behavior that drives any normal person away.

3) Do they seem to have few genuine friendships?

4) Do they long for some kind of political-cultural relevance? Want people to think they have elevated sensibilities and ought to be telling people how to run their lives?

5) Do they have personal assistants that are very close to being nannies to grown adults?

6) Do they have an intensely paternalistic attitude toward their illegal alien servants?

[khnyny]

Interesting, personal anecdote. Hopefully, you don’t have to spend too much time with these “relatives”.:)

Seriously, we need to change the tax code and eliminate or totally revamp IRS.

Here’s an article written by the Heritage Foundation talking about the flat or fair tax.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/bg1866.cfm

A Brief Guide to the Flat Tax

There is widespread consensus that the current tax system is a complicated failure that hinders the nation’s growth while allowing the politically well-connected to manipulate the system to get special breaks that are not available to average workers and businesses. This is stimulating a great deal of interest in shifting to a sim­ple and fair flat tax. For instance, President George W. Bush has appointed the President’s Advisory Panel on Tax Reform to recommend options for fundamental tax reform,[1] the Department of the Treasury has produced extensive analysis of the flat tax and other reform options,[2] and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are exploring various ways to reform the tax code.

[Mamzelle]

How about a tax on wealth?

Seriously--a tax on those with more than 20 million bucks in net worth.

Did you know that that's how they tax in Saudi Arabia?

Think how easy it would be to enforce. Everyone with that kind of coin would fit into a very small and magageable file.

I'd get to really exercise my particular form of class resentment--I resent like h@ll these billionaires who want to crush me with taxes!!

With few exceptions, the uber-wealthy are "progressives"--so let's tax their net worth progressively.

Let the smug Warren Buffetts actually pay the taxes he says he wants to pay. SOROS--pay up. Spielberg, Geffen--put your dough where your pie-hole is.

[Man50D]

Here’s an article written by the Heritage Foundation talking about the flat or fair tax.

The Fair Tax is a flat tax but on consumption instead of income. A flat tax has been tried already in the U.S. and the result is a complete failure. It's called the income tax. It began as a two tiered flat tax when enacted in 1913. The first tax ranged from 1% on the first $20,000 of taxable income and was 7% on incomes above $500,000. Few people paid the 7% since few earned above $20,000 in 1913. Less than 5% of the population was coverd by the income tax in 1913. Today more than 80% of the population is covered by the income tax. Another flat tax will eventually evolve into the same morass we have today but will occur faster thanks to the thousands of lobbyists that didn't exist in 1913. Fair Tax ping!

[Blood of Tyrants]

80% are paying SOME income tax but the upper half are paying 97% of it.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.