Source: United States Attorneys General
Headline: Longmeadow Man Sentenced for Failing to Report Foreign Bank Account of Over $2 Million
BOSTON – A Longmeadow man was sentenced today for concealing from the Internal Revenue Service an Irish bank account he held with a balance of over $2 million.
Michael Fitzgerald, 50, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to six months in prison, three months of community confinement, six months of home confinement, two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a penalty of $1,115,320. In October 2017, Fitzgerald pleaded guilty to one count of willfully violating the foreign bank reporting requirements.
United States citizens and residents who have a financial interest in a foreign bank account with a value of more than $10,000 must file with the United States Department of the Treasury a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. From at least 2005 through 2012, Fitzgerald, the owner and operator of a local roofing company, held bank accounts with the Bank of Ireland in Isle of Man. In 2012, those bank accounts held a combined balance of over $2.3 million. Fitzgerald willfully failed to report his foreign bank holdings to the Treasury Department.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Joel P. Garland, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Deepika Bains Shukla of Lelling’s Springfield Branch Office prosecuted the case.