Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Tax ‘Adviser’ Cost U.S. $30 Million, Feds Say

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A man who runs retirement plan "services" cost Uncle Sam $30 million by setting up sham pension plans, welfare benefit plans and other tax frauds for clients, federal prosecutors say. Prosecutors say $30 million is "a conservative estimate" of the damage done by William Alexander, 60, and his companies, Retirement Plan Services and Lyons Pensions.

Alexander, a native of Nebraska who works out of California, has been selling "purported pension plans" since 1973, and "purported welfare-benefit plans" since the late 1990s, according to the federal complaint.

His customers have been mostly small business owners, whose taxes he promised he could reduce or eliminate. The 34-page complaint describes a litany of ruses, all of which prosecutors say are bogus.

"It is estimated that Alexander's promotion of the sham pension plans and sham welfare-benefit plan tax-fraud schemes has resulted in at least $30 million harm to the United States," according to the complaint. "This number is a conservative estimate, as it is based only on a review of tax returns for twenty-four different groups of Alexander customers during the 2003-2007 tax years."

The government seeks an injunction and penalties.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...