Former US resident pleads guilty to money laundering, wire fraud, tax fraud and false statements

In the US District Court’s Southern District of New York, Harald Joachim Von der Goltz pleaded guilty to nine counts of wire fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, and false statements among other charges.  According to prosecutors, Von der Goltz along with three other defendants concealed assets, investments and income generated by those assets and investments from the IRS – a scheme that was executed by Mossack Fonseca & Co. and related to the International Investigative Consortium of Journalists’ publication of The Panama Papers.  In the scheme that took place from 2000 to 2017, court documents reveal that Mossack Fonseca created shell companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands to hide millions of dollars that Von der Goltz falsely claimed belonged to his elderly mother who was a Guatemalan citizen.  This occurred during a period of time when Von der Goltz was actually a US resident and subject to US tax laws.  Von der Goltz is scheduled to be sentenced on February 24, 2020 and faces a possible term in US prison.

DOJ Press Release | US Indictment