Briefs: Biggest criminal tax case in U.S. history is resolved
WASHINGTON — Telecommunications entrepreneur Walter Anderson pleaded guilty to tax evasion and fraud Friday in connection with what authorities said was the largest criminal tax case in the nation’s history.
Anderson was indicted in 2005 on charges he evaded $200 million in federal and local taxes. Prosecutors said Anderson used offshore corporations and bank accounts to hide income from tax collectors.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion and one count of fraud Friday. He admitted hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in income from the IRS and Washington D.C. tax collectors during 1998 and 1999.
Under a plea deal with prosecutors, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
Anderson started a long distance telecommunications business in the 1980s as the industry was being deregulated. When his first company, Mid-Atlantic Telecom, merged with another company in 1992, Anderson formed corporations in the British Virgin Islands to hide the income, prosecutors said.
Anderson, who allegedly didn’t file federal income tax returns from 1987 to 1993, has been held without bail since his arrest. Prosecutors say he owes $170 million in federal taxes and $40 million in Washington income taxes.
Former WorldCom chief ordered to federal prison
NEW YORK — Former WorldCom Corp. chief Bernard Ebbers was ordered to report to prison Sept. 26 to begin serving a 25-year sentence for an $11 billion accounting fraud.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones, in a ruling made public Thursday, ordered Ebbers to surrender to an institution designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to begin serving a sentence that was delayed for the last year while an appeals court considered it.
Ebbers was sentenced in July of last year after he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the massive fraud that drove WorldCom into bankruptcy in 2002.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month upheld his conviction and sentence, finding he was motivated primarily by personal financial circumstances.
Ebbers once was known as one of the nation’s most successful chief executive officers as his telecommunications company and its stock soared during the technology driven excesses of the late 1990s.
McCook company fined for unlicensed exporting
A McCook company has been fined $50,000 and given three years’ probation for exporting cattle prods to South Africa without first obtaining a federal export license.
According to a news release from U.S. Attorney Mike Heavican in Omaha, Springer Magrath Co. Inc. pleaded guilty to violating federal export licensing requirements. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf on Thursday.
Springer Magrath acknowledged that it had exported electric cattle prods to South Africa on Jan. 24, 2002. Federal law requires a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce to export electric cattle prods to every country except Canada.
The company and prosecutors could not be reached for comment. The company could have been fined up to $500,000.
Korean lawmakers dispute free trade talks
SEOUL, South Korea — A group of South Korean lawmakers petitioned the Constitutional Court on Thursday, claiming the government’s decision to start free trade talks with the United States without parliamentary approval violated their rights.
The 23 lawmakers also claimed that the government is not providing enough information on the negotiations, hindering lawmakers’ right to review the process, said Lee Chan-jin, one of their lawyers.
South Korea and the U.S. launched their third round of talks to forge an ambitious free-trade agreement on Wednesday in Seattle.
The proposed accord, if successful, would be the biggest for the U.S. since the North American Free-Trade Agreement of 1993. It has met fierce opposition from South Korean agricultural and labor organizations, which claim it would harm livelihoods and cost jobs.
Lee stressed the petition was “not aimed at opposing the free trade agreement itself.”
—From news wires
Anderson was indicted in 2005 on charges he evaded $200 million in federal and local taxes. Prosecutors said Anderson used offshore corporations and bank accounts to hide income from tax collectors.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion and one count of fraud Friday. He admitted hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in income from the IRS and Washington D.C. tax collectors during 1998 and 1999.
Under a plea deal with prosecutors, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
Anderson started a long distance telecommunications business in the 1980s as the industry was being deregulated. When his first company, Mid-Atlantic Telecom, merged with another company in 1992, Anderson formed corporations in the British Virgin Islands to hide the income, prosecutors said.
Anderson, who allegedly didn’t file federal income tax returns from 1987 to 1993, has been held without bail since his arrest. Prosecutors say he owes $170 million in federal taxes and $40 million in Washington income taxes.
Former WorldCom chief ordered to federal prison
NEW YORK — Former WorldCom Corp. chief Bernard Ebbers was ordered to report to prison Sept. 26 to begin serving a 25-year sentence for an $11 billion accounting fraud.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones, in a ruling made public Thursday, ordered Ebbers to surrender to an institution designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to begin serving a sentence that was delayed for the last year while an appeals court considered it.
Ebbers was sentenced in July of last year after he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the massive fraud that drove WorldCom into bankruptcy in 2002.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month upheld his conviction and sentence, finding he was motivated primarily by personal financial circumstances.
Ebbers once was known as one of the nation’s most successful chief executive officers as his telecommunications company and its stock soared during the technology driven excesses of the late 1990s.
McCook company fined for unlicensed exporting
A McCook company has been fined $50,000 and given three years’ probation for exporting cattle prods to South Africa without first obtaining a federal export license.
According to a news release from U.S. Attorney Mike Heavican in Omaha, Springer Magrath Co. Inc. pleaded guilty to violating federal export licensing requirements. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf on Thursday.
Springer Magrath acknowledged that it had exported electric cattle prods to South Africa on Jan. 24, 2002. Federal law requires a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce to export electric cattle prods to every country except Canada.
The company and prosecutors could not be reached for comment. The company could have been fined up to $500,000.
Korean lawmakers dispute free trade talks
SEOUL, South Korea — A group of South Korean lawmakers petitioned the Constitutional Court on Thursday, claiming the government’s decision to start free trade talks with the United States without parliamentary approval violated their rights.
The 23 lawmakers also claimed that the government is not providing enough information on the negotiations, hindering lawmakers’ right to review the process, said Lee Chan-jin, one of their lawyers.
South Korea and the U.S. launched their third round of talks to forge an ambitious free-trade agreement on Wednesday in Seattle.
The proposed accord, if successful, would be the biggest for the U.S. since the North American Free-Trade Agreement of 1993. It has met fierce opposition from South Korean agricultural and labor organizations, which claim it would harm livelihoods and cost jobs.
Lee stressed the petition was “not aimed at opposing the free trade agreement itself.”
—From news wires
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