WSJ Quotes Mark Matthews on Increased Scrutiny of Offshore Accounts

The Wall Street Journal quotes Mark E. Matthews concerning the U.S. government's increased scrutiny of offshore bank accounts.  Federal investigators have new momentum due to leads obtained from interviews with confessed tax cheats.  To see the full story, please visit WSJ's website.

Excerpt taken from the article.

"The government has no intention of letting up in its relentless pursuit of wealthy Americans with secret accounts offshore, and soon it will have even more tools to work with" as a new law goes into effect, said Mark Matthews, a former chief of the Internal Revenue Service's criminal-investigations division who now is a lawyer at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington.

U.S. officials now are shifting their focus to other banks in Switzerland and other countries, ranging from sprawling giants to niche providers of offshore accounts to taxpayers with dual citizenship, according to lawyers representing some account holders.

"They saw the money moving out of UBS and into Wegelin, and now they are looking to see where else it is going," says Mr. Matthews.