Wyoming businessman jailed for using concealed Nevis bank account for tax evasion
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NEWS reaching this publication states that a businessman from Wyoming, United States of America was on Wednesday (May 7) sentenced to serve 36 months in jail for tax evasion.
According to a US Department of Justice press release, the businessman, Robert C. Sathre, appeared before US District Judge Alan B. Johnson in Cheyenne, Wyoming on Wednesday on charges of tax evasion.
Sathre, who had pleaded guilty on February 26, 2014 to wilfully evading the payment of his 1995 and 1996 tax liability, was sentenced to serve 36 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $3,113,882 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
According to Court documents and proceedings, Sathre sold a Minnesota business and received installment payments in 1995 and 1996 of more than $3 million. He concealed his total income by filing a 1995 tax return in which he reported only $64,928.
Reportedly, the businessman then purchased land and set up another business, a gas station and convenience store in Sheridan, Wyoming, known as the Rock Stop.
It was also revealed in Court that Sathre concealed assets by opening a bank account in Nevis by using purported trusts. And in a 10-month period, between 2005 and 2006, he sent over $500 000 to the Nevis account to keep the funds out of the reach from the IRS.
Further disclosed in Court, was that when Sathre sold the Rock Stop in 2007, he wired over $1, 250,000 from the sale proceeds to the trust account of a Wyoming law firm and later directed that firm to wire $900 000 from the trust account to his account at the Bank of Nevis.
He also provided a false declaration and false promissory note to the Bank of Nevis to conceal the source of this transfer and obtained a debit card linked to the foreign account to access funds in the USA.
Additionally, Sathre provided the Bank of Sheridan with an IRS form on which he falsely claimed that he was neither a citizen nor a resident of the United States.
According to the release, the case was investigated by special agents of the IRS – Criminal Investigation.
According US laws, citizens of that country who have an interest in, or signature or other authority over, a financial account in a foreign country with assets in excess of $10 000 are required to disclose the existence of such accounts on Schedule B, Part III, of their individual income tax returns.
Additionally, US citizens must file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) with the U.S. Treasury disclosing any financial account in a foreign country with assets in excess of $10 000 in which they have a financial interest, or over which they have signature or other authority.
