DOJ Sues Ex-Seyfarth Partner for Alleged Sham Tax Shelters
A former partner at Seyfarth Shaw has been accused in a Justice Department complaint of selling sham tax shelters that resulted in $370 million in improper deductions.
The complaint alleges lawyer John Rogers peddled the shelters from at least 2003, the same year he joined Seyfarth after the bankruptcy of his former law firm, Altheimer & Gray, according to the Chicago Tribune and The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. He was forced to resign in 2008 when the firm learned he had continued to promote the tax shelters despite a promise more than two years before that he would stop, according to the Justice Department.
The civil suit (PDF posted by Legal Times) claims Rogers also benefited from participation in the tax shelters. In 2006, for example, he and his wife earned more than $2.5 million but paid zero taxes.
The Tribune has more details on the tax shelters. According to the suit, a company created by Rogers bought consumer debt from Brazilian retailers for pennies on the dollar, moved it to partnerships and later to trusts, and then sold interests in the partnerships and trusts to wealthy persons. These individuals claimed the face value of the debt as losses even though they did not actually lose any money.
Rogers did not return calls for comment placed by the Tribune and The BLT.
