Two accountants have entered guilty pleas in connection with the sale of legally-questionable tax shelters.
As part of a prosecutorial deal, Pasadena, Calif. former KPMG accountant Steven Acosta pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and obstruction of an Internal Revenue Service investigation. Acosta said that he allegedly helped one of the indicted former KPMG executives to sell the shelters.
While Acosta did at one time work for KPMG, he wasn't among the 19 individuals -- including 17 former executives of the Big Four firm -- indicted in late 2005 on criminal charges relating to the tax shelters. The trial is scheduled to start in September.
Meanwhile, Michael Grandinetti, a resident of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific, entered a guilty plea of lying to federal investigators. According to reports, while working as a senior executive at the United Micronesia Development Association, an investment corporation, Grandinetti secretly shared in millions of dollars in fees to promoters of illegal tax shelters.
Published reports suggest that Grandinetti might be involved with the inquiry into Deutsche Bank’s role marketing shelters to clients.
