Miami Man Sentenced to 60 Months in Prison for International Tax Evasion Scheme

A dual Brazilian and U.S. citizen, Dan Rotta, was sentenced to 60 months in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States by concealing millions of dollars in assets and income in undisclosed Swiss bank accounts. Rotta hid over $20 million in assets in dozens of secret Swiss accounts at five different Swiss banks between 1985 and 2020, and used the funds to fund his lavish lifestyle without reporting them on his tax returns. The scheme involved Rotta employing increasingly elaborate schemes to keep his accounts hidden, including falsely representing that he was not a U.S. citizen and leveraging his Brazilian citizenship to claim he was a Brazilian citizen residing in Brazil.

Key Takeaways:

• The IRS assessed millions of dollars of additional taxes, penalties, and interest against Rotta due to his tax evasion scheme.
• Rotta used sham trust structures to transfer his assets to the United States without alerting the IRS.
• He made false statements in his submission to the IRS's voluntary disclosure practice, claiming that the assets in the Swiss accounts mostly belonged to others and that any funds provided to him were non-taxable gifts.
• Rotta's scheme involved using nominee accounts and attorney trust fund accounts to conceal his use of funds from the IRS.
• The IRS investigated the case, with special agents from the IRS-CI's International Tax & Financial Crimes specialty group, a team based out of Washington, D.C.
• Rotta was ordered to serve three years of supervised release in addition to his prison sentence.
• The court will determine restitution at a later date.

Statistics:

• Rotta hid over $20 million in assets in dozens of secret Swiss accounts at five different Swiss banks between 1985 and 2020.
• The IRS assessed millions of dollars of additional taxes, penalties, and interest against Rotta due to his tax evasion scheme.
• Rotta used 5 different Swiss banks to conceal his assets, including UBS, Credit Suisse, Bank Bonhȳte, and Bank Julius Baer.
• He made false claims about the ownership of the assets in the Swiss accounts and the funds provided to him, including claiming that the majority of the assets belonged to others and that any funds provided to him were non-taxable gifts.
• Rotta's scheme involved using 2 different trust structures to transfer his assets to the United States without alerting the IRS.

Sources:

• US State Government of Utah: No date provided
• MIL-OSI USA News (http://milnz.co.nz/mil-osi-aggregation/) - Copyright 2025 Multimedia Investments Ltd, distributed by Contify.com: No date provided