Indy race car driver Helio Castroneves, his sister and his lawyer engaged in an intricate “pattern of deception” to avoid paying U.S. income taxes on millions of dollars over a five-year period, a prosecutor said Thursday in closing arguments at the trio’s tax evasion trial.
“These defendants attempted to skip out on taxes that all must pay, regardless of how rich, regardless of how famous, ” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Dwyer as the six-week trial drew to a close. “We have proved that beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Castroneves, a Brazilian who twice won the Indianapolis 500, and the others tried to conceal his control of a Panamanian shell company called Seven Promotions and lied to tax lawyers and accountants about his true income, Dwyer said. Documents and witnesses support the prosecution’s claims that Castroneves knowingly dodged some $2.3 million in U.S. taxes between 1999 and 2004, he added.
“Since 1999, the defendants have engaged in a pattern of deception…Â Details