U.K. Executive Pleads Guilty To Tax Fraud Conspiracy

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced that RODERIC SAGE pled guilty today to conspiring to defraud the United States in connection with a scheme to help high-value U.S. taxpayer-clients conceal more than $60 million in income and assets held in undeclared, offshore bank accounts and evade U.S. income taxes. SAGE was presented yesterday and pled guilty earlier today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods.

"As admitted, Roderic Sage helped U.S. taxpayers conceal more than $60 million in offshore accounts through a scheme designed to hide assets from the IRS," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "For years, Sage and his co-conspirators used layers of nominee accounts and offshore entities to disguise the true ownership of these funds and evade U.S. taxes. Offshore schemes are not beyond the reach of American law enforcement, and this case shows the strength of international cooperation in identifying and dismantling complex financial fraud schemes. It is straightforward: tax fraud is a fraud on your fellow Americans, and they want tax fraudsters brought to justice."

According to the allegations in the Indictment, court filings, and statements made in Court:

SAGE was the founder and CEO of a Hong Kong financial services firm. From in or about 2008 to in or about 2014, SAGE and his co-conspirators defrauded the IRS by concealing income and assets of high-value U.S. taxpayer-clients with undeclared bank accounts at Privatbank IHAG Zurich AG ("IHAG"), a Swiss private bank. In order to assist the U.S. taxpayer-clients, SAGE and his co-conspirators devised and implemented a scheme dubbed the "Singapore Solution" to fraudulently conceal the bank accounts of the U.S. taxpayer-clients, their assets, and their income from U.S. authorities. In furtherance of the fraudulent scheme, SAGE and his co-conspirators conspired to transfer more than $60 million from undeclared IHAG bank accounts of the U.S. taxpayer-clients through a series of nominee bank accounts in Hong Kong and other locations before returning the funds to newly opened accounts at IHAG in the name of a Singapore-based asset management firm that a co-conspirator helped establish. The U.S. taxpayer-clients paid large fees to IHAG and others to help them conceal their funds and assets and evade taxes.

SAGE was arrested on May 7, 2025, in the United Kingdom and extradited to the United States.

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SAGE, 73, of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. SAGE is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Woods on July 30, 2026.

The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.

Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding work of IRS-CI. Mr. Clayton also thanked the Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs, Interpol, and the United Kingdom's National Extradition Unit and the Crown Prosecution Service for their assistance in the arrest and extradition of the defendant. Mr. Clayton further thanked the Justice Department's Criminal Division for their partnership on this case.

This prosecution is being handled by the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit and the Tax Section of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Olga I. Zverovich and Matthew Weinberg and Senior Litigation Counsel Mark F. Daly of the Tax Section are in charge of the prosecution.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division ("Fraud Division"). The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department's work to combat fraud supports President Trump's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.