Cayman Island institutions admit to tax-evasion conspiracy

Two Cayman Island financial institutions pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring with U.S. taxpayers to hide from the Internal Revenue Service more than $130 million in offshore bank accounts, the Justice Department said.

The guilty pleas from Cayman National Securities (CNS) and Cayman National Trust (CNT) in federal court in New York are the first convictions of non-Swiss financial institutions for tax evasion conspiracy, the department said in a news release.

“Today’s convictions make clear that our focus is not on any one bank, insurance company or asset management firm, or even any one country,” said Stuart Goldberg, acting deputy assistant attorney general of Justice’s tax division. “The department and IRS are following the money across the globe – there are no safe havens for U.S. citizens engaged in tax evasion or those actively assisting them.”

Under the plea agreements, the companies, which are affiliates of Cayman National Corporation, will have to pay a total of $6 million in financial penalties and produce account files of U.S. taxpayers who had accounts with them and are not in compliance with tax laws.