U.S. Crackdown on Tax Evasion Shadows Prominent Suicide

I recently reported on the US-Swiss deal that will provide information regarding approximately 4,400 suspect UBS accounts to the IRS.  According to Lynnley Browning, Suicide Victim May Have Hidden Millions Abroad, NY Times, Sept. 15, 2009, similar tax evasion information pledged from Liechtenstein is shadowing the suicide of one prominent man:

No one can know exactly what Finn M. W. Caspersen, a prominent philanthropist and the heir to the Beneficial Corporation fortune, was thinking when he decided to take his life on Labor Day. Although Mr. Caspersen, 67, was battling kidney cancer, his suicide shocked his family and friends.

But Mr. Caspersen, a patron of Harvard and Princeton who gave away tens of millions of dollars to charity, apparently harbored a secret: He was suspected of dodging many millions in federal taxes.

. . .

The Caspersen case centers on bank accounts in Liechtenstein, which, like Switzerland, is a leading offshore haven. The I.R.S. learned that Mr. Caspersen held an account at LGT, the private bank controlled with Liechtenstein’s royal family, according to the person close to the investigation. Liechtenstein pledged last December to disclose the names of some wealthy Americans with bank accounts there, but it was unclear if Mr. Caspersen’s name was among them or how the I.R.S. learned of any account in his name.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.