Former KPMG accountant pleads guilty
Accountant makes deal with US state prosecutor in tax evasion case
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
Accountant
Pleads Guilty in KPMG Shelter Case
California
man pleads guilty in KPMG tax-shelter case