The Offshore Portfolio Investment Strategy (OPIS) was a tax avoidance product offered by accounting firm KPMG.
OPIS was one of many tax avoidance schemes offered by accounting firms in the 1990s.
These accounting schemes will create shell companies and record fake transactions and investments that will result in losses. These losses were used to offset the company’s profits, resulting in a reduction in the amount of taxes due.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ultimately declared these tax schemes illegal because they served no purpose other than to lower taxes and deprive the government of tax revenue.
Companies involved in tax scandals had to pay millions of dollars in damages.
Black money includes all funds earned as a result of illegal activities, as well as other legitimate income that is not taken into account for tax purposes.
A boiler room is a scheme in which sellers use high-pressure selling tactics to persuade investors to buy securities, including speculative and fraudulent securities.
Channel stuffing refers to the practice of a company supplying more products to distributors and retailers through a distribution channel than end users can purchase in a reasonable amount of time.
A High Yield Investment Program (HYIP) is a fraudulent investment scheme that aims to generate extremely high returns in excess of 100% on investments.
A letter scam in Nigeria is a scheme in which a sender offers someone a commission - usually via email - for helping them transfer a large amount of money.
Racketeering is the acquisition of a business through illegal activities, the conduct of a business with illegal income, or the use of a business to commit illegal activities.
A fraudulent trader is an employee of a financial firm who engages in unauthorized, often high-risk activities that result in large losses for the firm.