Former KPMG Partner Pleads Guilty in Tax Case

A former KPMG LLP tax partner pleaded guilty Monday, saying he helped wealthy investors dodge millions of dollars in taxes with fraudulent documents, sham companies and phony tax shelters.

David Rivkin, 42, entered the plea to conspiracy and tax evasion charges in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, agreeing to cooperate in what the Department of Justice has called the largest criminal tax case ever.

He was among 19 defendants charged with conspiracy last year in a tax scheme that the government alleges helped affluent KPMG clients escape $2.5 billion in taxes.

Rivkin described how the company, which serves some of the world’s largest corporations, helped people hide billions of dollars in profits from the Internal Revenue Service.

“The object of the conspiracy was to help wealthy taxpayers significantly and illegally reduce their tax liability to the United States Internal Revenue Service so that they could keep the money for themselves instead of paying the taxes they owed,” said Rivkin, who worked at the firm’s San Diego office as a member of KPMG LLP’s Innovative Strategies Group.

Rivkin admitted that he conspired with others between January 1999 and May 2004 to prepare and execute false documents so that clients could file false tax returns.