The Woltzes had their offices in the former Gulf Union Bank space in the British American building.
Mr Woltz and his wife, described as a “North Carolina couple” who headed a series of offshore financial companies. Mr Woltz was president of Sterling Trust and his wife was a director. Prosecutors have asked a judge to order that the Woltzes be held without bail.”
The Woltzes were indicted and arrested along with Sam Currin, a former US attorney who “later headed the North Carolina Republican Party and was a Superior Court judge; Ricky Graves a tax attorney was the fourth of the quarter netted in a sting by “investigators with the Internal Revenue Service”. If convicted on all charges Howell faces a maximum of 65 years in prison, Currin up to 60 years, Vernice Woltz 55 years, and Graves eight years, prosecutors said.
According to US Attorney Gretchen Shappert in Charlotte, the four were involved with “abusing financial trusts created under Caribbean companies to avoid US taxes”.
The Guardian has learned that the Woltzes who had moved out of their offices in the former Gulf Union Bank space in mid 2005, had allegedly purchased a residence on Goodman’s Bay and were in the process of doing
renovations but those have been halted for some months now.
AP reported that, according to the indictment, Currin, Graves, and Howell Woltz were charged with tax fraud conspiracy for devising foreign financial arrangements, including preparing “false and fraudulent documents to deceive the IRS,” the and acted “so that wealthy United States citizens could evade federal income taxation,”.
Currin also is charged with participating in a coverup of the financial structures mapped out through Woltz’s financial services company, prosecutors said. He was charged with obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and perjury charges in a related grand jury investigation of securities fraud.
Prosecutors said Currin not only gave false testimony, he persuaded Raleigh attorney Robert Wellons to “make false and misleading statements to and withhold documents from the grand jury.”
Wellons, 37, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice and has agreed to help the government, prosecutors said. His attorney did not return a call seeking comment. He faces up to five years imprisonment, prosecutors said.
“Sometimes persons involved in elaborate criminal financial schemes believe that they can avoid federal law enforcement by moving their operations offshore,” Shappert said. “This is not true.”
Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that a federal grand jury in Charlotte indicted Currin and the others earlier this month.
Currin was formerly an aide to Sen. Jesse Helms; the United States attorney for eastern North Carolina from 1981 to 1987; and a Superior Court judge until 1990. Since then, he’s represented criminal defendants in the state’s federal courts.
The Nassau Guardian
