LOS ANGELES – A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who earned nearly $1.3 million while working in Dubai over a three-year period pleaded guilty today to failing to disclose a foreign bank account to the Internal Revenue Service.
Marc Edward Mani, 49, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner.Mani pleaded guilty to one count of failing to file a foreign bank and financial account report (FBAR) for the 2013 tax year.
According to the plea agreement filed in this case, while working as a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, Mani began to travel to Dubai in 2011 to perform plastic surgery for a foreign medical center. Mani’s accountant, who was aware that Mani was earning foreign income, informed him that he would be required to report any foreign bank accounts under his ownership or control to the IRS.
In 2012, Mani opened a bank account with a financial institution based in Dubai and began depositing income he earned from abroad into this account. By February 2013, Mani’s foreign bank account held more than $400,000. However, Mani willfully failed to file a FBAR to disclose his foreign bank account for the calendar years 2012 and 2013.
In addition to failing to disclose his interest in his foreign bank account, Mani also failed to report on his federal income tax returns the vast majority of the approximately $1.28 million in foreign income he earned in Dubai for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. United States citizens who have an interest in or authority over a financial account in a foreign country with assets over $10,000 are required to disclose and report the foreign financial account to the United States Department of Treasury for each year the financial account exists.
Mani is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Klausner on February 5. The statutory maximum sentence he can receive is five years in federal prison.
This case is the product of an investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Charles Parker and James C. Hughes of the Tax Division.
