Senate Finance Committee Probes Enron Executives' Offshore Accounts

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

13 January 2004

The Senate Finance Committee requested last week that the Internal Revenue Service reveal its findings resulting from investigations into alleged concealment of income by former Enron executives through offshore bank accounts.

“The courts are deciding whether Enron executives cheated investors,” said committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley in a statement. “It’s important for the IRS to decide whether these executives cheated the IRS. Every time someone dodges his tax responsibility, other taxpayers pick up the tab. The taxpayers deserve a full accounting of any Enron executives’ tax shenanigans,” he added.

Meanwhile, ranking Democrat on the Committee Sen. Max Baucus stated: "The damage done from this scandal and others has damaged investor confidence and raised serious concerns about corporate governance and the integrity of our tax system.”

He added that “the investigation is incomplete if we fail to see the impact of the Enron executives’ schemes on their own individual tax returns.”

The Senators have written to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson requesting information held by the agency on former Enron executives, including whether any are listed among the names connected with the Revenue’s offshore bank account investigations.

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