Jason McLurem
Legal Times May 31, 2005

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1117184717977

A handful of law firms face being pulled into the largest tax fraud case in U.S. history. . . . he case, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is focused on whether Anderson -- one of the highest-flying telecom entrepreneurs during the 1990s -- allegedly used an intricate series of transactions involving offshore companies to hide $450 million in assets from the tax collector. . . . Among those, Swidler had the longest relationship with Anderson. For more than a decade, it was Anderson's primary counsel on dozens of business matters involving regulatory, corporate, and litigation work. For a time, Anderson even lived in a building next door to the firm. . . . Swidler partners contacted for this article declined to comment, but a spokeswoman for the firm issued a statement saying: "Swidler Berlin was never engaged to provide Walter Anderson legal advice regarding any personal tax issue. We have been advised by the Department of Justice that it views Swidler Berlin attorneys only as witnesses in this investigation."

LONGTIME RELATIONSHIP

There is no evidence that Swidler attorneys are -- or could be -- the subject of any investigation, and prosecutors assert in court documents that Anderson lied to his "accountants and others." . . . Swidler provided corporate services for Gold & Appel early on. In 1993, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post, Swidler attorneys filed a letter with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that "Anderson controls Gold & Appel and is the beneficial owner of substantially all of the equity of Gold & Appel." The letter, the Post says, states that the movement of assets to the offshore company was "for valid business purposes and not for tax avoidance purposes." . . . As Anderson grew wealthier by investing in a series of startup telecom companies, his relationship with Swidler grew. By the height of the telecom boom, say two former Swidler attorneys who spoke on condition of anonymity, Anderson was one of the largest clients of Swidler's 80-attorney telecom group -- a practice with 300 to 400 clients, including companies such as WorldCom Inc. . . . Anderson's key relationship partners at Swidler, say lawyers who worked at the firm, were rainmaker Andrew Lipman, one of Washington's best-known telecom regulatory lawyers, and John Klusaritz, a tax specialist who once lectured at Harvard Law School's international business and tax program and who now chairs the firm's corporate practice.

According to SEC documents, work from Anderson and the companies he controlled went to other Swidler attorneys as well: Andrew Ray, Morris DeFeo, Sean McGuinness. And other Swidler attorneys helped Anderson and Gold & Appel buy and sell stakes in telecom companies and advised him and his companies in dealings with federal regulatory agencies. (DeFeo and McGuinness have since left the firm.) . . . Swidler lawyers also represented Anderson in disputes with other investors and the federal government. White-collar defense partners Warren Fitch, James Hamilton, and Michael Levy represented Anderson in the early phases of the criminal investigation into his personal taxes, and as late as last fall, litigators Michael Lichtenstein and Steven Tave (both of whom have left the firm) represented him before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a civil suit brought by one of Anderson's business partners.... Lipman, McGuinness, Tave, and Levy declined to comment on questions regarding Anderson. Klusaritz, Ray, DeFeo, Hamilton, and Fitch did not return phone messages. ...In June 1997, court records show, Klusaritz filed a shareholder agreement with the SEC for Telco Communications, a Chantilly, Va.-based long-distance provider in which Gold & Appel, with Anderson as its signatory, owned a 25 percent stake. . . . Less than a week later, Telco announced its sale to a rival for $1.1 billion. Gold & Appel, the Anderson-controlled offshore company, ultimatelyreaped about $90 million in cash as well as several million shares in the newly combined company. . . . The indictment against Anderson charges him with failing to report more than $91 million in foreign earnings from Gold & Appel that year. An SEC filing a year before the sale states that Anderson "disclaims beneficial ownership" of Gold & Appel. . . .
In 1999, a year in which the government says Anderson failed to report more than $230 million in earnings, Esprit was sold to a larger competitor. On paper, the deal meant a $190 million payday for Gold & Appel.