By Patrick Byrne 
A federal grand jury indicted film producer Nigel Sinclair and Australian accountant Anthony Stewart yesterday for their involvement in a multi-decade conspiracy to defraud the United States by concealing millions of dollars in income and assets offshore.
According to the indictment, Sinclair, a prominent film producer, and Stewart conspired to hide Sinclair’s earnings, including proceeds from his 2000 sale of shares in the film production company Intermedia, which were worth approximately $25 million. Sinclair allegedly held half of his shares in a Maltese nominee entity that he controlled and later deposited the sale proceeds in Swiss bank accounts. The indictment claims Sinclair used these funds for luxury expenses, such as private jet travel, purchasing an $800,000 guitar, funding his new production ventures, and building a lavish vacation home in Wyoming.
To conceal Sinclair’s wealth, Stewart and other co-conspirators allegedly set up fake corporate entities and created fraudulent documents, disguising the true source and ownership of the funds. In 2004, the conspiracy began to unravel when one of Sinclair’s associates was arrested in Australia, leading to the seizure of a laptop containing details of their offshore dealings. This arrest sparked a major tax evasion investigation in Australia, known as Project Wickenby.
As authorities closed in, Sinclair and his co-conspirators allegedly took measures to evade detection, including moving assets to new nominee entities, destroying documents by flushing them down the toilet, and communicating via burner phones. Sinclair also allegedly attempted to make a false disclosure to the IRS in 2015 under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures, which allows taxpayers to resolve undisclosed foreign assets. He allegedly made false statements and underreported the value of his assets in an attempt to reduce penalties.
In addition, Sinclair is accused of failing to report foreign bank accounts on required U.S. Treasury forms in 2016 and 2017, despite admitting to their existence in his 2015 disclosure. Furthermore, in 2020, he allegedly urged a co-conspirator to lie to U.S. authorities during a grand jury investigation.
Sinclair is accused of causing a tax loss of over $5 million to the IRS. Both Sinclair and Stewart are charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., facing a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Sinclair also faces additional charges, including filing false tax returns, failing to report foreign bank accounts, and obstruction of justice, which carry potential sentences of up to 20 years.
The case marks a significant development in efforts to hold wealthy individuals accountable for offshore tax evasion.
Ryan Rudd