Howell W. Woltz was the president and director of both Sterling ACS Ltd., a corporation supposedly specializing in incorporating offshore companies and providing related financial services, and Sterling Trust Ltd., an Anguilla company with Nassau offices.
His wife Vernice was also a director of both companies, and the Chief Financial Officer of Sterling ACS.
Howell and Vernice Woltz are U.S. citizens.
The two executives have been indicted in North Carolina District Court on a number of counts, along with former top federal prosecutor Sam Currin and Delaware tax attorney Ricky Graves.
The counts include witness tampering, obstruction and perjury among other things.
The indictment, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Martens, says Graves, the Woltzes and Currin “would and did concoct foreign ‘dual trust’ arrangements so that wealthy United States citizens could evade federal income tax.”
According to the indictment, the IRS undercover agents solicited advice from Graves on evading U.S. taxes on the fictitious sale of “gaming rights” for $10 million. Graves allegedly recommended a scheme known as a “dual trust structure” by which Sterling Trust would set up two trusts that would facilitate the evasion of the taxes.
The two undercover agents reportedly met in Nassau in October 2004 with Woltz, Graves and Currin to discuss the particulars of the scheme, and pursuant to the meeting, a Bahamian company named Gold Coast Ltd. was formed.
The U. S. Attorney charges that Gold Coast Ltd. was the company used to facilitate the actual tax evasion scheme.
The Woltzes are also accused of giving “false and misleading” testimony in another matter involving Currin. In this instance, they are alleged to have aided in a scheme to obstruct a lawsuit filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission against a company alleging fraud in the solicitation of investors.
The Woltzes are accused of concealing incriminating evidence, shipping a computer backup drive to the Bahamas to avoid its inspection, and lying about their actions in federal court.
The U.S. Attorneys allege that the Howell and Vernice Woltz “corruptly influenced obstructed and impeded the due administration of justice” in the CFTC lawsuit.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
