Cayman Islands firms admit to helping evade US taxes

NEW YORK (AP) — Two Cayman Islands-based financial firms have pleaded guilty in New York to conspiring to hide more than $130 million in offshore bank accounts from the Internal Revenue Service in order to evade paying U.S. taxes.

Prosecutors say CNS and CNT opened and or encouraged U.S. taxpayer-clients to open accounts in the name of sham Caymanian companies and trusts and allowed them to trade in U.S. securities without disclosing their identities to the IRS.