Financial Mines

News and notes from the business reporters for the Connecticut Media Group.
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Archive for February 14th, 2013

Unemployment claims swelling in state

Thursday, February 14, 2013 by:Rob Varnon
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Connecticut’s Labor Department said Thursday it will extend the hours of operations of its unemployment benefits call centers and open them on Presidents’ Day due to a heavy volume of callers filing unemployment claims.

The rising tide of callers in Connecticut appears to be running counter to the trend across the nation, but some of that volume might be related to the blizzard as the state closed its call centers early last week.

However, on Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department said the national number of people filing first time claims for benefits fell by 27,000 last week, to 341,000.

“The beginning of the year is traditionally a very busy time for us in terms of unemployment claims due to seasonal shutdowns or layoffs,” noted Connecticut Labor Commissioner Sharon M. Palmer. “To help those depending on a weekly benefit payment while looking for new employment, we felt it important to remain open on the holiday, especially since last week’s blizzard required us to close our Call Centers and CTWorks employment offices for the duration of the storm.”

To further assist callers, the state’s TeleBenefits Call Centers are open extended hours the remainder of this week, from 7:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday.

The state TeleBenefits Call Centers will be in operation from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Presidents’ Day, February 18, to provide assistance to callers that need to speak with a Customer Service Representative to file an initial claim, re-open a claim, or answer questions.

Those filing a continued claim typically do not need to speak to a Customer Service Representative and are encouraged use the agency’s online WebBenefits system. Information for filing on the agency’s secure website can be found by visiting the Labor Department’s site at www.ct.gov/dol.

Newtown man cops to $2.5 million “friends and family” fraud

Thursday, February 14, 2013 by:Rob Varnon
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The U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut said Thursday Garrett L. Denniston, 62, formerly of Newtown and Maine, pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud related to a seven-year fraud that took 50 people for $2.5 million.
“This defendant operated an investment fraud scheme by representing to investors that he ran a successful investment business and could offer them a special ‘friends and family’ deal investing in companies for a guaranteed return of their investment plus a high rate of interest,” stated U.S. Attorney Fein.  “I commend the FBI and the Greenwich Police Department for shutting down this scheme, and I urge the investing public to be extremely skeptical of any promises of risk-free investments and guaranteed returns.”

Denniston, according to court records ran a company called ConsensusOne and attracted investors from approximately 2005 to 2012, claiming to have special investment options on merging companies under a friends and family deal. But the stocks were non existent, the government said.

As in other cases, there were faked documents and money from one investor was used to pay others.

Denniston apparently blew much of the money on luxuries and having fun, using some of the money for gifts to family members, airfare, hotels, restaurants, country club memberships, golf and ski outings, mortgage and rent payments, cable and telephone bills, furniture, home renovation costs, and other personal living expenses, the government said.

The former Newtown resident is scheduled to be sentenced on June 11 and he faces a maximum prison term of 20 years.

Swiss working with IRS to find hidden American money

Thursday, February 14, 2013 by:Rob Varnon
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Could this be a boon to mattress makers? (You know, because people will have to hide money in them instead of offshore accounts.)

In case you were thinking of hiding money offshore in Switzerland, better think again. Uncle Sam has worked out a deal with Swiss.

Here’s the announcement:
The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced today that it has signed a bilateral agreement with Switzerland to facilitate the implementation of the information reporting and withholding tax provisions commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

“Today’s announcement marks a significant step forward in our efforts to work collaboratively to combat offshore tax evasion,” said Acting Secretary of the Treasury Neal S. Wolin. “We are pleased that Switzerland has signed a bilateral agreement with us, and we look forward to quickly concluding agreements based on this model with other jurisdictions.”

Enacted by Congress in 2010, FATCA targets non-compliance by U.S. taxpayers using foreign accounts. The bilateral agreement signed today is the first based on the model published in November of 2012 – the second of two model agreements – and marks another important step in establishing a common approach to combating tax evasion.

Switzerland is one of eight countries that have signed or initialed an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) which helps to facilitate the effective and efficient implementation of FATCA. In addition to the previously announced countries, Treasury initialed an IGA with Italy on January 24. Treasury is engaged with more than 50 countries and jurisdictions to curtail offshore tax evasion, and more signed agreements are expected to follow in the near future.

On January 17, 2013, the Treasury Department and the IRS finalized the regulations implementing FATCA, providing additional certainty for financial institutions and government counterparts about the process for U.S. account identification, information reporting, and withholding requirements for foreign financial institutions (FFIs), other foreign entities, and U.S. withholding agents.

The agreement can be found at http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/treaties/Documents/FATCA-Agreement-Switzerland-2-14-2013.pdf