The government added 10 defendants to its indictment in the KPMG LLP tax shelter investigation, including the Big Four accounting firm's former chief financial officer, bringing the number of people charged in the case to 19.
A New York federal grand jury charged each of the 19 defendants with at least 39 counts of tax evasion and a single count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. The grand jury also charged three of the defendants with obstructing government investigations, and one with evading his personal income taxes.
Seventeen of the 19 defendants are former KPMG tax professionals, including newly added defendant Richard Rosenthal, 49, a former chief financial officer for the firm.
In January 2004, KPMG announced congressional scrutiny into its past shelter activities after a November 2003 report compiled by a Senate Government Affairs Subcommittee showed that KPMG collected roughly $124 million in fees from shelters from 1997 through 2001. Investigators have said that the shelters may have cost the government more than $2.5 billion in tax revenue. In August, the firm agreed to pay $456 million to avoid prosecution over its sale of abusive tax shelters.
