PANAMA INFORMANT TRICKS CONFESSION OUT OF ALASKA DOCTOR

FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA ~

SNITCH IN PANAMA WITH STOCK FRAUD CASE IN USA ENTRAPS TAX EVADER FOR LESS PRISON TIME

Thanks to the U.S.A. crackdown on offshore tax evaders, it’s gotten harder to hide money from your ex-spouse. Striking evidence of that comes from a lawsuit the U.S.

 

Attorney for the Central District of California filed last month after Homeland Security Investigation

Agents seized $4.7 million from a Bank of America account in the State of Washington allegedly belonging to an Alaska M.D. intent on depriving his ex-wife of assets the court said she was due.

 

In a previously unreported “complaint for forfeiture” that reads like the plot for a B-movie, the government says Anchorage plastic surgeon Michael D. Brandner was in the middle of a contested divorce in May, 2008, when he drove from Alaska to Panama (more than 6,000 miles, according to Google maps) and deposited cashiers’ checks totalling $3.25 million into an account at Capital Bank in Panama.

 

In June 2008, after the Alaska court ordered Brandner to turn over his $1.26 million self-directed IRA held at Pensco Trust Co. to his wife, he moved that money to an account at  Bank of America in California, and then to the Panama account at Capital Bank, the government says.  Later, he shifted an additional $200,000 to Panama.

 

Here’s where the government’s offshore crackdown comes in: Back in 2008, when the doc first allegedly moved money to Panama, the Central American country was a notorious haven from both the Internal Revenue Service and legitimate creditors.

 

But in November 2010, in a bid to win Congressional approval of a Free Trade Agreement, Panama signed a tax cooperation and information exchange agreement with the U.S.

 

In May 2011, Dr. Brandner’s  Panamanian advisor—who it turns out, was cooperating with  U.S. authorities in a separate U.S. stock fraud case—warned him the tax treaty might affect his ability to keep assets hidden from his wife. The "Snitch" convinced Brandner that the best way to protect his money going forward would be to put it in a U.S. bank account ostensibly owned by a foreign corporation.

 

The doctor followed this dubious advice, and in August 2011 opened an account in the name of the foreign corporation at a Bank of America branch near SeaTac airport in Washington State.

 

By Sep. 12, 2011, he had wire-transferred all the money from Panama  at Capital Bank  to go to the Bank of America account, and Homeland Security swooped in and seized it.

 

Compounding the 63-year-old doctor’s potential legal problems:  The "Informant" reminded Brandner (during a conversation monitored by law enforcement) that he had told him he needed to file an FBAR form reporting his foreign account to the Treasury.

 

The doctor, according to the government, acknowledged that he knew he had to file an FBAR and said he hadn’t done so—-a violation that makes the funds subject to forfeiture. (The government also alleges it can keep the money for violations of the federal wire fraud statutes.)

 

The Informant is known to WANTED SA and the name will be released accordingly.

 

 

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