1,200 People Reveal Offshore Accounts

More than 1,200 people have stepped forward to reveal they used offshore accounts or credit cards to avoid paying more than $100 million in taxes, the Internal Revenue Service said.

Those who turned themselves in avoided prosecution and some penalties, and they led the IRS to 80 new promoters who will be pursued for marketing and selling illegal offshore accounts.

Investigators have spent months tracing the identities of people who hold thousands of Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards issued by banks in offshore tax havens. The records were obtained through previous court orders in an attempt to pierce secrecy laws that protect those bank accounts.