Date: November 7, 2023 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Former resident of Palm Beach County, Fl., Lucia Andrea Gatta, pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to tax and naturalization fraud charges. On February 2021, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Gatta, with tax evasion, failing to file tax returns, and naturalization fraud, among other offenses. According to the indictment, Gatta was born in Chile and became a naturalized U.S. Citizen in 2012. The indictment alleges that, for calendar years 2012 through 2014, Gatta failed to disclose her interest in a Swiss bank account on annual FBARs as required by law. Gatta also allegedly evaded assessment of income taxes on the interest and dividend income she earned in her Swiss bank account and failed to file tax returns with the IRS for tax years 2011 through 2014. According to the indictment, Gatta also failed to disclose to the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that she had failed to report foreign dividend and interest income during her citizenship application process, and she allegedly presented misleading documents to USCIS to substantiate the false statements she made during her naturalization interview. Gatta challenged her extradition from Italy, where she was living, for more than 18 months. However, on August 2023, the Italian government ordered Gatta extradited to the United States to face charges for willful failure to file tax returns for tax years 2011 through 2013, and naturalization fraud. Gatta has now pleaded guilty to those charges. Gatta faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison for the naturalization fraud, and a maximum sentence of one year in prison for each of the three counts concerning the failure to file tax returns. The case was investigated by special agents of the IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations. Senior Litigation Counsel Sean Beaty and Trial Attorney Parker Tobin of the Tax Division are prosecuting this case.
