A film producer and and Australian accountant have been indicted over a multi-decade tax fraud.
According to the indictment, Nigel Sinclair is a film producer who founded several successful movie production companies. He has been indicted along with Anthony Stewart, an accountant in Australia.
Sinclair is 76. His movie credits include the 2013 Formula One film “Rush” and “Snitch” starring Dwayne Johnson.
In 2000, Sinclair allegedly co-owned Intermedia, a film production company he co-founded.
It is alleged he held half of his Intermedia shares in the name of a Maltese nominee entity that he controlled.
When the company was listed on a foreign stock exchange, Sinclair allegedly caused his shares held by the Maltese company to be sold for approximately $25 million.
It is claimed he and Stewart then conspired with others to hide these proceeds by depositing them into nominee bank accounts in Switzerland.
Private jets and rock star guitars
The indictment claims Sinclair allegedly used these proceeds to fly on private jets. It is also claimed he bought an $800,000 guitar owned by a famous rock musician.
It is claimed the money was also used to fund his next production company.
Finally, it is alleged Sinclair built himself an 8,000 square foot vacation home in the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming.
Stewart and others are also alleged to have used corporate entities and created fake documents to disguise the true ownership and source of the funds Sinclair used to do so.
In 2004, one of Sinclair’s co-conspirators was allegedly arrested in Australia and his laptop seized.
It is claimed the laptop allegedly contained files related to Sinclair and other individuals’ offshore financial dealings.
The indictment says the seizure was the catalyst for a major tax evasion investigation in Australia, called Project Wickenby.
Alleged steps to avoid detection
As the investigation progressed Sinclair, Stewart and their co-conspirators allegedly took steps to avoid detection by authorities.
It is claimed this included moving Sinclair’s assets into the name of new nominees, destroying potentially incriminating documents by flushing them down the toilet, talking in code and communicating on burner phones.
In 2015, Sinclair allegedly tried to use the IRS’ Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures.
Under those procedures, the IRS allegedly offered taxpayers with undisclosed foreign assets the opportunity to make timely, accurate and complete disclosures to resolve their non-compliance and limit their criminal exposure.
The indictment claimed Sinclair allegedly made several false statements about his foreign assets and underreported their value.
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It is also claimed that, despite admitting in his 2015 voluntary disclosure that he had a foreign bank account, Sinclair allegedly did not report that bank account on Reports of Foreign Bank Account and Financial Accounts (FBARs) that he filed with the U.S. Treasury Department for 2016 or 2017.
Lastly, in 2020, Sinclair allegedly encouraged one of his co-conspirators to tell a false narrative to US authorities as part of a grand jury investigation.
Sinclair allegedly caused a tax loss to the IRS of more than $5 million.
The charges
Sinclair and Stewart were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Sinclair was also charged with filing false tax returns, filing false FBARs and obstruction of justice. If convicted, Sinclair and Stewart face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiracy.
Sinclair also faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each filing a false tax return charge, a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each false FBAR charge and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the obstruction charge.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
