MIAMI – A Miami businessman has admitted to hiding more than $20 million in Swiss bank accounts for decades to avoid paying U.S. taxes, a news release from the Department of Justice confirmed Tuesday.
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Authorities said Dan Rotta, 78, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to “defraud the United States by concealing assets and income in undisclosed Swiss Bank accounts.”
Detectives reviewed court records showing that from 1985 to 2020, Rotta hid millions in multiple Swiss banks, including UBS, Credit Suisse, Bank Bonhôte, and Bank Julius Baer, calling it a “substantial tax loss to the IRS.”
They said he held accounts in his own name, through shell companies, and even under a fake name.
Over the years, authorities said Rotta earned tens of millions of dollars in unreported income, using the funds to support a lavish lifestyle while evading taxes.
To keep his accounts hidden, they said Rotta falsely claimed he was not a U.S. citizen, instead using his Brazilian citizenship to portray himself as a foreign resident.
His deception escalated in 2008 after UBS and its bankers were investigated for aiding tax evasion, according to investigators.
They said Rotta moved his assets to other Swiss banks, then altered account documentation in 2011 to make it appear that a Brazilian associate owned the funds.
Even as the IRS audited him, Rotta denied having foreign accounts and provided fake loan documents to support his claims.
Authorities said he routed money through nominee accounts and attorney trust funds to hide his use of the funds in the U.S.
In 2017, after fabricating evidence of loan repayments, investigators said he convinced the IRS to drop its tax assessments, but the funds were secretly returned to his control.
By 2019, they said Rotta applied for the IRS’s voluntary disclosure program to avoid criminal charges, but he continued to lie by claiming the money belonged to others and was gifted to him.
Authorities said Rotta is set to be sentenced on June 4 and faces up to five years in prison.
