{"id":109408,"date":"2025-02-27T13:02:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T21:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/27\/ex-biglaw-partner-turned-celebrity-tax-adviser-sentenced-to-time-behind-bars-for-tax-fraud\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T13:02:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T21:02:50","slug":"ex-biglaw-partner-turned-celebrity-tax-adviser-sentenced-to-time-behind-bars-for-tax-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/27\/ex-biglaw-partner-turned-celebrity-tax-adviser-sentenced-to-time-behind-bars-for-tax-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Biglaw Partner Turned Celebrity Tax Adviser Sentenced To Time Behind Bars For Tax Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Back in November, after his trial had already started, a former Biglaw tax partner pleaded guilty to one count of aiding or assisting in the filing of a false or fraudulent tax return. It seems that he was helping his high-profile clients \u2014 including DJs Ti\u00ebsto and Afrojack \u2014 hide millions upon millions of dollars from the IRS, and it was likely that he could face time in federal prison for doing so. (Neither DJ has been charged.) Earlier this month, his sentence was handed down.<\/p>\n

Frank Butselaar, who worked at Greenberg Traurig\u2019s office in Amsterdam from the mid-2000s until late 2013, was charged in 2022 with tax-related crimes. According to prosecutors, he was involved in \u201ca long running, international fraud scheme\u201d meant to assist his famous clients conceal offshore income from the IRS. Butselaar \u2014 who has already been in custody for 21 months \u2014 was recently sentenced to 30 months in prison. Reuters<\/a> has additional details:<\/p>\n

\n

In a statement, Butselaar\u2019s defense lawyers Kerry Lawrence and Samidh Guha said \u201cour goal remains to get Mr. Butselaar home to his loved ones as soon as possible\u201d and that the sentencing hearing was \u201ca step in that direction.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cButselaar knew that he was breaking the law,\u201d prosecutors told the judge in a court filing before the sentencing. \u201cBut he did it anyway to boost his professional standing and build a client base in industries that are driven by word-of-mouth recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Prosecutors are asking that Butselaar pay $19.25 million in restitution, while his defense team claims that he doesn\u2019t owe any money to the IRS. <\/p>\n

Judge sentences ex-Greenberg Traurig tax lawyer to prison<\/a> [Reuters]<\/p>\n

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\"Staci
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Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Ex-Biglaw Partner Turned Celebrity Tax Adviser Sentenced To Time Behind Bars For Tax Fraud<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back in November, after his trial had already started, a former Biglaw tax partner pleaded guilty to one count of aiding or assisting in the filing of a false or fraudulent tax return. It seems that he was helping his high-profile clients \u2014 including DJs Ti\u00ebsto and Afrojack \u2014 hide millions upon millions of dollars from the IRS, and it was likely that he could face time in federal prison for doing so. (Neither DJ has been charged.) Earlier this month, his sentence was handed down.<\/p>\n

Frank Butselaar, who worked at Greenberg Traurig\u2019s office in Amsterdam from the mid-2000s until late 2013, was charged in 2022 with tax-related crimes. According to prosecutors, he was involved in \u201ca long running, international fraud scheme\u201d meant to assist his famous clients conceal offshore income from the IRS. Butselaar \u2014 who has already been in custody for 21 months \u2014 was recently sentenced to 30 months in prison. Reuters<\/a> has additional details:<\/p>\n

\n

In a statement, Butselaar\u2019s defense lawyers Kerry Lawrence and Samidh Guha said \u201cour goal remains to get Mr. Butselaar home to his loved ones as soon as possible\u201d and that the sentencing hearing was \u201ca step in that direction.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cButselaar knew that he was breaking the law,\u201d prosecutors told the judge in a court filing before the sentencing. \u201cBut he did it anyway to boost his professional standing and build a client base in industries that are driven by word-of-mouth recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Prosecutors are asking that Butselaar pay $19.25 million in restitution, while his defense team claims that he doesn\u2019t owe any money to the IRS. <\/p>\n

Judge sentences ex-Greenberg Traurig tax lawyer to prison<\/a> [Reuters]<\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in November, after his trial had already started, a former Biglaw tax partner pleaded guilty to one count of aiding or assisting in the filing of a false or fraudulent tax return. It seems that he was helping his high-profile clients \u2014 including DJs Ti\u00ebsto and Afrojack \u2014 hide millions upon millions of dollars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":109402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Staci-Zaretsky-hxSSMl.jpeg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}