Financial Transparency Coalition

On June 30th, the US Department of Justice filed its legal brief in the UBS case in the Federal District Court in Miami. The filing came amid speculation that the Justice Department might be looking to settle the case with UBS, as a diplomatic gesture towards the Swiss.

Harriette Walters, the mastermind of the $48.1 million D.C. tax scam, was sentenced this morning to 17 1/2 years in federal prison, capping the prosecution of the largest embezzlement in District government history.

A criminal saga that began in December with a string of superlatives — the largest, longest and most widespread Ponzi scheme in history — ended the same way on Monday as Bernard L. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum for his crimes.

Tax cheats have brazenly hidden billions of dollars in offshore bank accounts for decades, but this ruse has become harder to pull off thanks to John McDougal, a special trial attorney at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).