Ivanka Trump’s Ex-Business Partner Moshe Lax Sued By Department Of Justice For Fraud

A friend and former business partner of Ivanka Trump is being sued by the United States Department of Justice for his role in defrauding the federal government out of millions of dollars in tax liabilities on his father’s estate investments.

New York businessman Moshe Lax, his sister Zlaty Schwartz and their late father Chaim Lax are named in the suit, brought forth in the Southern District of New York by lawyers, part of the Justice Department’s tax division, and alleges that the family engaged in a series of “sham transactions” designed to evade tax liability.

According to Politico, the lawsuit seeks more than $60 million in unpaid tax liabilities, and alleges that the family made 10 separate attempts to dodge the IRS and other creditors in an effort to make the family’s estate seem insolvent.

The suit alleges that their father began hiding his fortune years before his death in an effort that his heirs could inherit it without being forced to pay his unmet tax obligations. Lax and Shwartz are accused of continuing that scheme, of hiding their fortune though a series of extravagant transactions, well after their father’s death.

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For years, Ivanka Trump helped run Madison Avenue Diamonds, a business owned by Lax and that then went by the name Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, though the president’s daughter is not explicitly named in the complaint, the holding company to which Lax allegedly transferred part of the company is.

One of the 10 schemes Lax stands accused of is a roughly $21 million transfer of interest in Madison Avenue Diamonds from his father’s estate for nothing in return. The government alleges the fraudulent transfer of equity in Madison Avenue Diamonds occurred between 2008 and 2012, while Ivanka was still involved with the business.