A New Jersey millionaire and philanthropist who gained notoriety when questions were raised about the value of a collection of 17th- and 18th-century stringed instruments that he sold to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison on unrelated tax fraud charges.
The philanthropist, Herbert Axelrod, sobbed and expressed his remorse for helping a former executive of his pet supply and pet-related publishing company set up a Swiss bank account to hide taxable income from the Internal Revenue Service.
"It was always my goal to be remembered as an outstanding philanthropist," said Axelrod, 77, standing before Judge Garrett Brown in US District Court. "Instead I will be remembered as someone who disrespected the law and this court."
Last month the former executive, Gary Hersch, pleaded guilty to defrauding the government of taxes on some US$775,000 he secreted in a Swiss bank. The white-bearded Axelrod, who has been held in a Monmouth County jail and who wore an oversized, khaki-colored prison jumpsuit to court, admitted Monday that it was he who introduced Hersch to his Zurich banker in 1983, commencing the fraud.
Axelrod was arrested in June in Germany, where he had fled after hearing of the federal investigation into the tax case. He lived in Deal, New Jersey, for many years, and made his fortune with pet products and publications, founding TFH Publications.
Once called the Medici of the Meadowlands for his patronage of the arts, he was praised just a year earlier for his sale of 30 Stradivarius, Amati and Guaneri violins, violas and cellos to the orchestra. He and some experts had valued the collection at US$50 million, but the symphony was able to buy the collection for US$18 million.
It was seen at the time as a generous gift. However, other appraisals and an investigation by the trustees of the orchestra valued the instruments at between US$15 million and US$26 million at most.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
RSS