Alexandria, Virginia, USA (GenevaLunch) - A doctor based in Virginia in the US pleaded guilty Tuesday 16 February to conspiracy to evade taxes. This is reportedly the first IRS (US tax authority) case where a non-US bank other than Switzerland’s UBS is cited as providing advice about how to evade taxes.

Dr Andrew Silva of Sterling, Virginia has provided the name of the bank, but reference in the court case is only to a large international UK-based bank, according to both Reuters and Bloomberg. Bloomberg, however, says the bank is HSBC, according to its sources, but HSBC has not commented.

Silva, in his guilty plea, reportedly says he inherited money in 1997, in undeclared accounts in Switzerland from his mother, and that he met with a lawyer in Zurich and bank officials in November and October 2009. At this point the bank, like Swiss banks, was informing clients that it was closing US citizens’accounts. Silva, in his plea, says he carried large amounts of cash, at least $225,000, out of Switzerland and into the US, without declaring the money, according to  news agencies who have seen the guilty plea. US law requires anyone carrying more than $10,000 to declare it to customs officials.

Court records for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia do not yet show his guilty plea as registered, nor do local newspapers in Virginia mention the case on their crime pages.

Silva, age 49, is a nose and throat specialist and surgeon.

The judge who has been assigned his case, Liam O’Grady, was nominated to the district court position by US President George W Bush in 2007 and approved by the Senate.

Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Reuters

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