3 O.C. men plead guilty to not telling IRS about foreign bank accounts worth millions
Two Newport Coast men pleaded guilty Wednesday to failing to disclose to the IRS foreign bank accounts that contained millions of dollars, federal prosecutors said.
David Ramin Kalili, 52, and his brother-in-law David Shahrokh Azarian, 67, admitted that they didn’t file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts with the Internal Revenue Service regarding secret bank accounts in Switzerland and Israel that they maintained for more than a decade, according to the U.S. attorney general’s office.
Kalili’s brother Dan Farhad Kalili, 55, of Irvine also pleaded guilty in the case.
“The days of being able to safely hide income and assets offshore and evade U.S. tax have come to an end,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline Ciraolo said in a statement. “The United States and foreign jurisdictions are sharing information and working together to ensure that citizens around the world are paying their fair share. The guilty pleas entered today are yet another example of what awaits U.S. taxpayers who continue to flout the law.”
Prosecutors said David Kalili maintained several accounts at Credit Suisse in Switzerland from February 1999 through at least 2009 and at UBS in Switzerland from October 1993 through at least 2008. Dan and David Kalili also maintained joint undeclared bank accounts at UBS and Credit Suisse that they opened in 2003 and 2004.
Azarian maintained several of his own undeclared accounts at Credit Suisse from May 1994 through at least 2009 and at UBS from April 1997 through at least 2008, prosecutors said.
From 2006 through 2009, authorities said, the three men were required to but did not report to the IRS their ownership and control of foreign bank accounts.
Over the years, they took steps to prevent their assets from being discovered, including transferring funds from accounts in Switzerland to Israel, according to prosecutors.
The three face a maximum of five years in prison when they return to court for sentencing April 24.
Each also will pay a civil penalty for failing to file the required forms, authorities said. David Kalili will pay more than $1.3 million, Dan Kalili over $2.6 million and Azarian $951,607.
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