A Florida woman was sentenced Friday to 30 months in prison for helping her family hide more than $90 million from the IRS.
The offshore scheme spanned four decades and relied on banks across Andorra, Israel, Panama, and Switzerland.
Gilda Rosenberg, a dual U.S.-Colombian citizen from Golden Beach, conspired with relatives between 2010 and 2022 to conceal assets in Andorra, Israel, Panama, and Switzerland. She also filed false tax returns and failed to report foreign accounts.
Court documents reveal the family’s offshore accounts dated back to the 1970s. By the late 1990s, Rosenberg knew they hadn’t disclosed the accounts or paid taxes on the income generated.
The scheme grew more sophisticated in the early 2000s when they consolidated assets at Credit Suisse. Family members explicitly informed bank employees that they were U.S. persons seeking to conceal assets from authorities.
Credit Suisse closed their accounts in 2013 specifically because the account holders were U.S. persons. The family then scattered their millions across banks in Israel, Switzerland, and Andorra.
Rosenberg signed false documents claiming Colombian citizenship to open new accounts. She was listed as a beneficial owner at Union Bancaire Privée and an Andorran bank.
In 2017, the family used fake gift documents to deepen the fraud, pretending to transfer assets to a relative who had renounced U.S. citizenship.
They created bogus loan and investment paperwork to disguise money transfers to Rosenberg in the United States. This aimed to conceal both ongoing and historical tax evasion.
From 2009 through 2017, Rosenberg and two co-conspirators failed to report over $5.5 million in income. This caused a tax loss of $1,927,342.
Rosenberg agreed to pay full restitution plus interest to the IRS. She also faces a $5,857,045.50 civil penalty for failing to file Foreign Bank Account Reports.
In 2019, Rosenberg also pleaded guilty in the Northern District of Texas to defrauding U.S. military exchanges. Prosecutors stated that she submitted false commission reports to evade paying contractually required fees on government sales.
The current tax case emerged from an investigation by the IRS Criminal Investigation’s International Tax & Financial Crimes Unit. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs played a crucial role in obtaining critical evidence.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen Kelly and U.S. Attorney Hayden O’Byrne announced the sentencing. Prosecutors from the Tax Division and the Southern District of Florida handled the case.