Last August, federal jurors convicted a Milwaukee neurosurgeon, Arvind Ahuja, of filing a false tax return and failing to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or FBAR, related to HSBC accounts in India.
Last year, Ashvin Desai, the owner of a medical device company, was indicted in federal court in San Jose, California, on charges that he filed a false tax return and failed to file FBARs related to HSBC accounts in India. He awaits trial.
Amnesty Program
The IRS has said 33,000 U.S. taxpayers with offshore accounts have avoided prosecution since 2009 by entering a limited amnesty program, paying back taxes and identifying those who helped them hide their accounts from authorities.
Hundreds of taxpayers in the program gave prosecutors information that has helped build criminal cases against bankers and advisers.
Sethi became a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. in March 1989 and a U.S. citizen in June 2004. In 1992, he created SanVision, which provides software development, database management and other information technology services for banking and insurance clients, court records show.
He used a Swiss charitable trust and a Cayman Islands corporation to hide the proceeds of real estate transactions in India, according to his charging document known as a criminal information.
Undeclared Account
Sethi also used a British Virgin Islands corporation to hide his ownership of an undeclared Swiss account for “unreported business receipts and reimbursements for actual business expenses” of SanVision, he admitted.
He admitted conspiring with U.S. Banker A, a senior vice president in New York of a cross-border banking group within the private banking division; U.K. Banker A, a “high-ranking executive” in London and head of a cross-border banking group focusing on clients with ties to south Asia; and Swiss Banker A, a financial adviser based in Geneva.