Stanley Okula, one of the prosecutors, said a stiff sentence was needed to deter other would-be criminals and to account for the defendant’s greed and manipulation.
“There is no one who has caused as much tax harm as Mr. Daugerdas. His conduct is unprecedented,” Okula said before the sentenced was handed down.
10-Year Scheme
Denis Field, the former chief executive officer of New York-based auditor BDO Seidman, was acquitted at the same trial last year. Daugerdas and Field were both charged with running the 10-year scheme that cost the U.S. Treasury $92 million.
The verdicts stemmed from a retrial of the case on charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and attempting to obstruct the Internal Revenue Service.
Prosecutors said the defendants used shelters named “Short Sales,” “Short Options Strategy,” “Swaps” and “Homer” to generate fraudulent tax losses for clients.
Daugerdas and Field were among seven people indicted in the case in June 2009. Two of those charged, former BDO Seidman partner Robert Greisman and former Jenkens & Gilchrist attorney Erwin Mayer, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government.
Donna Guerin, another former Jenkens & Gilchrist partner, was sentenced by Pauley in March 2013 to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $190 million for her role in the scheme. She had pleaded guilty the previous year, just as she was set to be tried for a second time with Daugerdas and Field.
Different Jury
A different jury in the earlier trial returned guilty verdicts on May 24, 2011, against Daugerdas, Field, Guerin and a fourth accused conspirator, David Parse, a former broker at Deutsche Bank AG. Craig Brubaker, a former accountant at a Deutsche Bank unit, was found not guilty.