Released on = June 7, 2007, 7:29 am

Press Release Author = Lala C. Ballatan

Industry = Law

Press Release Summary = Four present and ex of Ernst and Young, the massive
accounting firm in New York City, were charged with crimes involving tax fraud
conspiracy and tax shelters, which assisted some of the wealthy to escape income
taxes of more than $10 million. The indictments were filed Wednesday, May 30, 2007.

Press Release Body = Four present and ex of Ernst and Young, the massive accounting
firm in New York City, were charged with crimes involving tax fraud conspiracy and
tax shelters, which assisted some of the wealthy to escape income taxes of more than
$10 million. The indictments were filed Wednesday, May 30, 2007.

Los Angeles, California, June 6, 2007 - These four personnel operated under a group
set up by the firm last 1998 for the purpose of developing tax shelters. This
formation was according to the indictment filed in the Manhattan U.S. District
Court.

They allegedly swindled the Internal Revenue Service or IRS from the years 1998 to
2004. Their defrauding activities involved selling, marketing and designing
fraudulent tax shelters. According to U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, the charges are
targeted on tax experts or professionals whose deceitful activities are costing the
country tax revenues amounting to millions.

VIPER was the name of the group the defendants have joined. It means "Value Ideas
Produce Extraordinary Results." It was later renamed to SISG or "Strategic
Individual Solutions Group."

The defendants were Robert Coplan, 54 who is a lawyer and former branch chief of IRS
Legislation and Regulations Division; Martin Nissenbaum, 51, also a lawyer; Richard
Shapiro, 58, lawyer and account, and Brian Vaughn, 39.

The former partners are Coplan and Vaughn. Shapiro and Nissenbaum presently are
partners and are on "administrative leave" from the firm.

The charges against them are obstructing and damaging the lawful IRS functioning,
conspiracy to deceive IRS, composing false official documents and statements and tax
evasion.


Ernst & Young stated that the accused persons were not anymore part of the firm\'s
management. They were only members of a small group in the firm with obligations to
certain transactions that is presently an issue in the case. The company also
declared that the said group had been broke up years ago.


Furthermore, according to the charges, the accused persons and their conspirators
have known that once the IRS detected the utilization of tax shelter benefits by the
clients, they will be challenged aggressively.

According to IRS, the alleged Ernst and Young personnel hid their tax fraud crimes
by creating fraudulent documents containing falsified clients' descriptions.
Particularly, concerning the motivations of the clients in claiming said tax
benefits.

The lawyers of the defendants and the clients involved in the tax frauds claimed
that they were innocent and were only cooperating with the firm's authorities since
the beginning of their investigations.

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