Princeton resident and cancer researcher Michael Reiss, who admitted hiding millions of dollars from the Internal Revenue Service in Swiss bank accounts, has been sentenced and fined for the crime.
Reiss, 61, former associate director of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ), and professor of internal medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, was sentenced to one day in prison and eight months in a community confinement center.
Reiss pleaded guilty on August 5 to hiding more than $2.5 million from the IRS in various Swiss bank accounts.
According to authorities, Reiss, who also is the former director of breast cancer research at CINJ, admitted that he willingly failed to report the funds for more than 10 years. Also according to authorities, Reiss admitted that he enlisted the help of Swiss financial adviser Beda Singenberger, who was indicted in July on charges of conspiring with American clients to hide more than $184 million at various Swiss banks.
According to authorities, between 2000 and 2010, Reiss failed to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, with the IRS relating to accounts he maintained in Switzerland. The undeclared account was opened in the name of the Floranova Foundation, a sham foundation which had allegedly been formed by Singenberger under the laws of Liechtenstein. Reiss was the sole beneficiary of the foundation.
