Ty Warner, the inventor and creator of Beanie Babies which was all the rave in the 1990’s has plead guilty to tax evasion for hiding over $93 million in a secret Swiss bank account.
The accounts were held in UBS the Swiss banking giant and later with Switzerland’s Zurcher Katonalbank.
As penalties, he will pay $53.5 million for failing to report the account.
Warner was one of the many taxpayers who was outed as a result of the 2009 prosecution agreement between UBS and the U.S. government. UBS admitted helping wealthy Americans hide their money from the IRS and paid a $780 million fine and agreed to turn over names of some American customers. A whistleblower revealed the fraud and collected as a reward $104 million, the highest whistleblower award from the IRS.
More high profile prosecutions and agreements are expected to be released shortly.
