Boston tax bust may be 1st of many

A wealthy Boston financier was charged Tuesday with using the global law firm Mossack Fonseca to dodge U.S. taxes through shady off-shore companies in a scheme first revealed through the leak of the Panama Papers.

Two men tied to the firm based in Panama, along with a U.S.-based accountant, were also charged in an indictment sure to cause alarm among its many other clients who had counted on its secrecy.

“As alleged, these defendants went to extraordinary lengths to circumvent U.S. tax laws in order to maintain their wealth and the wealth of their clients. For decades, the defendants, employees and a client of global law firm Mossack Fonseca allegedly shuffled millions of dollars through off-shore accounts and created shell companies to hide fortunes,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said. “In fact, as alleged, they had a playbook to repatriate untaxed money into the U.S. banking system. Now, their international tax scheme is over, and these defendants face years in prison for their crimes.”

Prosecutors say that Harold Joachim von der Goltz used the firm to create shell companies and bank accounts that made investments hidden from the IRS, though he lived in the U.S.

A Massachusetts accountant, Richard Gaffey, and Panamanian attorney Ramses Owens helped von der Goltz carry out the scheme using the name of his 102-year-old mother, who lived in Guatemala, authorities said. Von der Goltz reportedly hid as much as $70 million.

Owens and an asset manager, Dirk Brauer, were also accused of helping U.S. taxpayers conceal assets and investments from 2000 to 2017. They advised clients on how to bring money from their off-shore accounts into the U.S. without raising authorities’ suspicions, prosecutors said.

Three of the men were arrested in different countries. Von der Goltz was busted in London. Brauer, who worked for a Mossack Fonseca affiliate, was arrested last month in Paris. Gaffey was taken into custody in Medfield, Mass. Owens remains at large.

The Panama Papers were a massive leak 11.5 million documents in 2016.