Tax Analysts reports that H. Ty Warner, owner of Beanie Babies production company TY Inc., was charged yesterday with federal tax evasion for allegedly failing to report on his 2002 Form 1040 more than $3.1 million in gross income earned through investments in a secret offshore financial account he held with UBS. Warner also failed to report that same income on an amended return filed in November 2007. His amended return reduced the amount of additional tax that he failed to pay from $1,257,064 to $885,300.
Warner was charged in a felony information; he is cooperating with the Internal Revenue Service and will plead guilty to tax evasion and pay a $53.5 million penalty. Forbes lists Warner as the 589th richest person in the world, worth $2.5 billion.
Warner is the second taxpayer charged in Federal Court in Chicago in connection with an ongoing investigation of U.S. taxpayer clients of UBS and other overseas banks that hid foreign accounts from the IRS.
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