Heralding the arrival of the IRS’ Eastern reign of terror, an unnamed Singaporean asset management firm is reportedly in the middle of an IRS criminal investigation, according to the WSJ.
The firm is currently under investigation for accepting transfers from undeclared Swiss accounts connected to American taxpayers, and it looks like they won’t be stopping there, says one lawyer:
“The IRS and Justice Department seem be turning their focus east, where there are many U.S. taxpayers with accounts—so it could be fertile ground,” said Bryan Skarlatos, a lawyer with Kostelanetz & Fink in New York, which has represented nearly 2,000 taxpayers with undeclared offshore accounts.
Unlike the Swiss, who initially tried to fight for their clients, the Singaporean government seems to be on board with the U.S. in this case.
“They are on board” with American and other initiatives to open up reporting by foreign financial firms, he said.
Exactly what I said. How this will affect Singapore’s asset management industry however is a little unclear at the moment. By going hand in hand with the IRS, they might just get away without a scratch, unlike Switzerland, who saw a handful of its decades – even centuries – old banks end up in disgrace or bankruptcy. Let’s see how this plays out.
Photo credit: Shubhika Bharathwaj via Flickr