A former KPMG accountant has pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and obstruction of an Internal Revenue Service investigation.
Steven Acosta pleaded guilty to the charges as part of a deal with prosecutors from the District Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York. Acosta said that he helped one of 17 indicted former KPMG executives to sell the tax shelters. Acosta faces a maximum sentence of 16 years in prison.
Although he did at one time work for KPMG, Acosta was not among the 19 individuals - including 17 former executives of the Big Four firm - indicted in late 2005 on criminal charges relating to the tax shelters. Their trial is scheduled to start in September.
A former resident of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, Michael Grandinetti, also entered a plea of guilty, for lying to federal investigators.
Grandinetti secretly shared in millions of dollars in fees to promoters of illegal tax shelters, while working as a senior executive at the United Micronesia Development Association, an investment corporation.
Criminal charges against KPMG were dropped on 3 January.
Further reading:
KPMG and ex-partners square off in US
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