More Aegis client indictments

[Demosthenes]

May 3 arraignment set on tax-fraud charges

— By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Trusts purchased by a Carthage surgeon who was indicted last week on charges of tax-fraud conspiracy were marketed by a company whose top officials also were indicted three years ago on federal tax-fraud charges.
Orthopedic surgeon Brian Ellefsen and his brother Mark Ellefsen, who for a time was office manager for the surgical practice, surrendered to federal authorities Monday in Springfield. The two were released on their own recognizance and are scheduled to be arraigned May 3.
The Ellefsens were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Springfield on charges of tax-fraud conspiracy. They allegedly attempted to avoid paying federal income taxes on nearly $1.6 million earned by the medical practice.
That indictment also alleges that the Ellefsens were clients of Aegis Co., Palos Hills, Ill., which marketed trust packages through a network of promoters, attorneys and accountants.
Several founders and principals of Aegis were arrested in April 2004 and charged with participating in a decade-long conspiracy to market and sell sham domestic and foreign trusts to hundreds of wealthy clients throughout the United States to hide millions of dollars in income. Federal officials at the time of the Aegis arrests estimated the tax loss to the U.S. government to be at least $68 million.
The arrests were part of a 51-count indictment issued by a federal grand jury in Chicago. The three founders of the company are awaiting trials scheduled for later this year, according to federal officials.
The indictment against the Ellefsen brothers, covering a period from August 1997 to August 2003, alleges that they conspired to divert $1,567,100 from Southwest Missouri Bone and Joint Inc., in Carthage, to Brian Ellefsen without paying taxes on the diverted money.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, the Ellefsens established accounts at several financial institutions in the names of various trusts and offshore bank accounts. They allegedly used those accounts and entities to engage in a series of “sham paper transactions,” which resulted in the concealment of funds from the Internal Revenue Service.
Other counts in the indictment allege the filing of false income tax returns by Brian Ellefsen, and that Mark Ellefsen aided in the preparation of a false income tax return on his brother’s behalf.


Aegis indictments

Among those at Aegis Co. who were indicted in 2004 on federal tax-fraud charges were Michael Vallone, one of the founders and the company’s executive director; Edward Bartoli, a founder and legal director; Robert Hopper, managing director and founder; Timothy Shawn Dunn, a certified financial planner, promoter and manager of Aegis trusts; William Cover, a promoter and manager of Aegis trusts; and David Parker, legal director.

Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois