LAWFUEL – Law News Network – R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Brian J. Wimpling, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, announce that defendant Raymond Scott Stevenson, of Delray Beach, Florida, surrendered today on a one count criminal Information charging him with filing a false corporate tax return. Stevenson entered a plea of not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Linnea R. Johnson in Fort Pierce, Florida. The violation carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.
Stevenson is charged with intentionally failing to report more than $170 million in income on Tyco International Ltd.’s 1999 corporate tax return. Stevenson was Tyco’s top tax advisor and served as Tyco’s Vice President in charge of taxation, where his responsibilities included overseeing the preparation and filing of Tyco’s corporate tax returns. As the head of tax at Tyco, Stevenson directed a series of transactions designed to reduce Tyco’s state tax liability. In doing so, an approximate $170 million federal capital gain was incurred by Tyco.
The case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Karadbil and Trial Attorney Jeffrey A. Neiman, of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
