The investigation and prosecution of hidden offshore accounts are also a priority for the IRS enforcement program.  Their 2006 enforcement efforts in this area was a 34% increase over 2001.  The priorities in this area include but are not limited to hidden offshore accounts, failing to pay payroll and income taxes, failing to report income on individual and corporate returns. 

Among the government’s highlighted cases for 2006 are: 

In June 2006, a federal judge sentenced five defendants, Dennis Poseley (seven years), David Trepas (five years), Patricia Ensign (18 months), Rachel McElhinney (16 months), and Keith Priest (18 months), to prison terms for their respective roles in promoting a tax evasion scheme that used offshore trusts and bank accounts. 

On June 22, 2006, District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich issued an injunction permanently barring Douglas Rosile, a former certified public accountant whose clients included Wesley Snipes, from preparing federal income tax returns for others and from promoting a frivolous tax argument based on Section 861 of the Internal Revenue Code. Among the documents the government filed in court was a return submitted to the IRS on behalf of Snipes claiming a bogus $7.3 million tax refund. 

In November 2006, a federal judge sentenced Milton H. Baxley II to 18 months in prison and fined him $10,000 for contempt of court. On August 9, a jury convicted Baxley on two counts of violating an injunction order barring him from promoting a tax fraud scheme. 

In December 2006, a federal judge sentenced Thomas Miller to nearly four years in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States in connection with a “pure trust” tax fraud scheme. Miller operated Freedom Education Center, a business in California that sold anti-tax literature and helped people create bogus trusts.   

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