COURT BARS TWO FLORIDA MEN FROM SELLING ALLEGED OFFSHORE TAX-FRAUD SCHEME

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in Orlando has permanently barred Pierre Gauthier of Longwood, Fla., and his father, Jean Jay Gauthier of Daytona Beach Shores, from promoting an alleged tax-fraud scheme. According to the complaint filed in the case, the Gauthiers helped customers set up offshore trusts and corporations to conceal their income and assets from the IRS, while using offshore debit or credit cards to repatriate the funds.

The civil injunction order, signed by Judge G. Kendall Sharp of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, requires the Gauthiers to stop selling the program. The injunction, to which the two men consented, also requires them to notify their customers of the injunction and post a copy of the injunction on their Web sites.

Fraudulent offshore transactions are on the IRS’s annual list of the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams, available at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=154293,00.html.

More information about the Justice Department’s efforts against tax-scam promoters can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2006.htm. Information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html.