Pied Piper to the Truly Rich

The U.S. cracks down on a tax-shelter scheme

The Rolling Stones' fretful tune Gimme Shelter carries a special meaning for rock stars, Hollywood actors, even Wall Street tycoons. Like all of America's truly rich, they constantly look for loopholes in U.S. tax laws to shield their megabuck earnings from the Internal Revenue Service. But at times, as the headlines last week again confirmed, the Government declares those shelters to be illegal.

A federal grand jury last week charged three executives -- Charles Atkins, 32, William Hack, 62, and Ernest Grunebaum, 52 -- of Securities Groups, a bankrupt Manhattan-based investment firm, with providing $550 million in false tax write-offs through...

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