[Photo: successtaxrelief.com]

Harold Levine, a New York lawyer, has been criminally charged with failing to report to the Internal Revenue Service more than $3 million of fee income from tax shelter and other transactions he handled at the law firm Herrick Feinstein, where he led the tax practice.  He left that firm in 2012.

According to the indictment, Levine diverted the money with the help of Ronald Katz, a CPA who hid from the IRS more than $1.2 million he received for his involvement. The scheme began in 2004 and lasted roughly a decade, and included the use of limited liability companies controlled by Levine, Katz or both.

Levine, 58, was charged with 8 counts including tax evasion, wire fraud, making false statements to the IRS, obstruction and conspiracy.  Katz, 59, was charged with obstruction and conspiracy. Both men maintain their innocence.

In June 2014, the government filed a civil lawsuit accusing Levine of cheating the IRS out of more than $129 million by participating in roughly 90 illegal tax schemes, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of improper deductions. That case was put on hold in July 2015.