Super-Rich Tax Cheats (VIDEO)

They hide an estimated $100 billion a year from the IRS, but now the U.S. Senate is turning up the heat on offshore tax havens. The man who ratted out some of these tax dodgers now lives in hiding and has a $10 million bounty on his head. This is a story straight out of our new Gilded Age -- one of billionaires, foreign bankers, corruption, secrecy and, of course, greed.

[WATCH]

Comments

[ItHasToGetBetter]

12:30 AM on 07/30/2008

Let's just hope something substantial comes out of this. I'm glad someone is finally pursuing this problem. It's been going on long enough. So has the sense of entitlement. Those of us who aren't wealthy like our money as much as the rich do. I, however, recognize that contributing to this country is important. I don't mind paying my fair share, but I wish these people would pay theirs. There seems to be no sense of responsibility to anyone but themselves.

[DrFitz]

08:02 PM on 07/28/2008

FINALLY. Nice to see some good coverage of this by someone other than Keith Olbermann. Now let's see if any of the Corp mass media dare pick it up. So far, there's been crickets on this.

[BBackSoon]

06:33 PM on 07/28/2008

From the handful of Rich people I have had dealings with they have this sense of entitlement. Not just to the finer things in life but the belief that Taxes are something poor people pay.

Most of us feel our taxes are high but would gladly pay them if we thought the money was well spent. The rich on the other hand feel this is my money I am not going to give it to the government, no matter how it is spent!

[6WaysToSunday]

06:28 PM on 07/28/2008

Who's surprised? It never ceases to amaze me how these worms use their Constitution right to protect themselves, but they do not hesitate to implicitly take away your Constitutional rights through fraud.

[Grannysue]

05:49 PM on 07/28/2008

How much you wanna bet, good old Bush and Cheney have their own fake corp. names and bank at the same place, they are all crooks, the middle class once again takes it up the you know what!

[hopeless277]

05:27 PM on 07/28/2008

Levin will get a check and the hearings will be adjourned....for good. It's just the business of politics or as we common folk call it, extortion.

[divergal]

04:50 PM on 07/28/2008

Whoa! I have a modest proposal...Eat the Rich! Then, let's all eat cake!

[vippy]

05:46 PM on 07/28/2008

I don't see Joe or Bill O'Reilly or anyone else talking about this. The U.K., Italy and Germany
published a list of the tax cheats. Typical for our crooks to protect themselves and have a different set of laws. IRS stated recently that 25% of the rich have not paid one red penny in taxes.
And McCain wants to give them more tax cuts.

[Susej]

04:12 PM on 07/28/2008

This is just another example of the culture of corruption instituted by the Bush administration.
Take from the rich during the election campaigns to brainwash the Uninformed masses to (re)elect them to the highest offices of the land, then give it all back to the wealthy 1% who invested so little. This is by far the most profitable type of financial investment known to humankind.

[RightWingMarine]

03:52 PM on 07/28/2008

Instead of increasing taxes or taxing the rich more or the poor and working class more why don't we stop wasting our tax dollars that are taken? Stop building bridges to nowhere, stop subsidizing crops, end welfare, end medicare, end medicaid, end social security, stop using the defense budget to fund teaching inner city kids how to play golf. The list goes on and on. If we stop wasting our tax dollars we can reduce taxes and leave the taxpayer with more of their own money.

[hippynanainblingland]

04:21 PM on 07/28/2008

Or better yet, stop paying for immoral wars!

[Synoia]

04:29 PM on 07/28/2008

"end social security"

Go for it.

"A well regulated, volunteer malitia" would be an interesting way to cut costs.

[JDHART]

03:34 PM on 07/28/2008

I wonder how those off-shore tax loop holes came to be? Anyone from Congress care to answer?

[Crake]

03:14 PM on 07/28/2008

Norm Coleman is a corrupt rat, this won't go anywhere!

[KHAAANNN]

03:30 PM on 07/28/2008

Well of course not.
Who do think is bankrolling his reelection campaign? It sure isn't the citizens of Minnesota.

[Kally]

04:10 PM on 07/28/2008

The citizens of Minnesota, and I am one, can't stand him. How he ever got in office in the first place is beyond me and thousands of voters. Course the DFL candidate is always ahead til the count those votes in Minneapolis and miracle of miracles....the republican wins. Then the citizens of Minnesapolis are outraged, cause everyone you talk to says they never voted for them.

[MicahD]

03:12 PM on 07/28/2008

This is what it is all about. It ALL comes down to greed.
This has to change, it ain't gonna be easy, these people will do ANYTHING to keep it the way it is.

[Soundofthunder]

02:57 PM on 07/28/2008

When a billionaire tells me he's not paying enough taxes, I listen, and so should America. I have a simple taxation philosophy: those who benefit the most from the American way of life should be GLAD to pay the most, not just in raw dollars, but as a percentage of what they make because they are supporting the system which enables them to be rich. Billionaires paying a 40% tax rate isn't confiscatory. But secretaries and working paying 33% is. Working people NEED that 33%, and ironically most if not all of that money would end up where? In corporate coffers.

SOT

[ebanks84]

02:55 PM on 07/28/2008

If this doesn't show you how much BO will be for the people and not the "rich", then nothing will. We have been bamboozled too long in paything taxes for the rich that the government has given them every right to elude. No More!

It's about time they pay their dues or go to the slammer!

[23000Days]

02:50 PM on 07/28/2008

I would gladly answer that question, but my lawyer says plead the 5th.......