A former employee with a U.K.-based brokerage firm has admitted guilt in connection with a scheme to evade the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that a former investment manager at London, U.K.-based Beaufort Securities Ltd., Panayiotis Kyriacou, pled guilty in federal court to conspiring to commit securities fraud and to defraud the U.S. by failing to comply with FATCA.
According to U.S. authorities, an undercover agent contacted Kyriacou in 2016 to open brokerage accounts to enable market manipulation trades involving stocks on U.S. over-the-counter markets.
U.S. authorities said that Kyriacou didn’t seek FATCA information from the undercover agent, and instead opened accounts listing Belize-based companies and nominees listed as the beneficial owners.
They also said that Kyriacou facilitated manipulative trading in a U.S. company, and agreed to launder the proceeds through the purchase and sale of artworks.