WASHING TON: Michael Little was found guilty in a New York court of taking part in an 11-year tax fraud scheme in which he advised and helped the Seggerman family squirrel away $14m (£10m, €11.4m).
He was also convicted of failing to file his own personal tax returns and assisting in the filing of false tax returns.
According to the US Department of Justice, after Seggerman died in 2001, Little and a lawyer from Switzerland met with his widow and adult children at a hotel in Manhattan.
They advised the family that the patriarch had left them approximately $14m in overseas accounts that had never been declared to US authorities.
Little and the Swiss lawyer also advised them on steps they could take to continue hiding these assets from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
In particular, Little discussed various methods by which they could bring the money into the US while evading detection by the IRS.
Among other means, he said that they could bring money back in small increments, or “little chunks,” through means such as travellers’ cheques, or by disguising money transfers to the US as being related to the sales of artwork or jewellery.
Four of Seggerman’s six children worked with Little and the Swiss lawyer to repatriate the offshore funds.
Little assisted in opening an undeclared Swiss account to hide the widow’s inheritance. He also ordered accountants to prepare false and fraudulent tax returns and to keep falsified records for a corporate entity in the US, controlled by the widow, which was used to receive funds from the Swiss account.
