Nasdaq – by Maria Armental, WSJ
U.S. officials are suing Deutsche Bank and a other financial companies, accusing them of engaging in an “abusive scheme” to defraud taxpayers of more than $190 million in federal income taxes, authorities said Monday.
In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the authorities charge the German bank created a series of fake companies to try to make potential tax liabilities disappear.
“This was nothing more than a shell game,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
Reached for comment, Deutsche Bank representative said, “We fully addressed the government’s concerns about this 14-year old transaction in a 2009 agreement with the IRS. In connection with that agreement they abandoned their theory that DB was liable for these taxes, and while it is not clear to us why we are being pursued again for the same taxes, we plan to again defend vigorously against these claims.”
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
“… the German bank created a series of fake companies to try to make potential tax liabilities disappear.”
That’s o.k.
The money ‘created’ by the Fed is fake too.