Tax Evasion Charges Against Bank Leumi Settled for $400M

As finger pointing continues between Leumi bank’s executives as to who knew how much, it has become evident that the bank helped US depositors evade those high taxes that all working Americans are burdened with.

Israeli bank helps 1,500 US customers evade taxes

A $400 million tax settlement by Bank Leumi has brought to light its illegal financial activities and the process used by Leumi executives to hide offshore accounts of US customers in a bid to help them evade paying taxes to the corrupt IRS. Americans just want to keep more money that they have earned and are tired of seeing their money wasted on millions of Americans who show very little personal responsibility.

The top officials of Leumi are being advised by their lawyers and tax attorneys to defend themselves against allegations brought by the justice departments, stating that they are not aware of any such tax evasion. The relations between the executives have become strained with former Bank Leumi CEO and Chairman Eitan Ruff publicly declaring that the bank should not have admitted that they helped US depositors evade taxes. They are represented by the attorney Ram Caspi.

Caspi in a written statement stated that a lawsuit related to derivatives was brought against the Bank by former officers. He alleges that his clients who as officeholders performed their duties as assigned by the Leumi Group, with offices in New York, Florida, Illinois, and California, were not aware of anyone helping US customers of the bank evade taxes.

US investigates Leumi officials use of aliases of customer names

It is alleged that tax attorneys with knowledge of US tax laws and processes colluded with Israel’s Bank Leumi executives to set up processes for US depositors to hide their assets and evade taxes. Bank Leumi has not denied the charges while experts closely watching the case say this is probably the first time that a foreign bank has admitted to this sort of criminal activity.

As per a Forbes reporter, the US prosecution has asked Bank Leumi to pay $270 million to the IRS and another $130 million to New York’s Department of Financial Services. The bank has admitted its wrongdoings, and is reportedly settling with prosecution to defer conspiracy charges brought against Leumi for a period of 2 years.

Bank Leumi typically operated by laundering client money in tax havens and falsifying their tax returns over a ten year period. The bank admitted to meeting potential clients at secret rendezvous, which were typically coffee shops where they sold their tax evasion packages to clients who are unhappy with the avenue America is currently on. The objective was to hide their assets via illegal offshore channels set up by Bank Leumi, benefit from undeclared money and transact undeclared assets held under false names. Prosecutors have asked Leumi to hand over the names of over 1,500 US citizens who have used these channels.

Banks like UBS and Credit Swiss set similar examples

Shareholders of Bank Leumi will be happy to know that they are in the company of banking giants UBS and Credit Suisse. UBS used the same tactics to find customers where executives would meet depositors in hotels, outside the bank premises and talk various options to circumvent paying higher taxes. Bank Leumi would give customers loans at rates as low as 1% holding their accounts as security. As many as 205 loans were issued by Bank Leumi to its customers in the period 2002 – 2010.