Alaska Plastic Surgeon Convicted Of Wire Fraud And Tax Evasion

Anchorage, Alaska – U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced that Dr. Michael Brandner, 67, of Anchorage, Alaska, was convicted today of four counts of wire fraud and three counts of tax evasion by a federal jury sitting in Anchorage, Alaska.

According to the indictment and evidence introduced at trial, shortly after his wife filed for divorce in late 2007, Dr. Brandner collected millions of dollars in marital assets and secretly drove from Tacoma, Washington, to Costa Rica in Central America.  In Costa Rica, he opened two bank accounts into which he deposited over $350,000 in cash and hid a thousand ounces of gold in a safe deposit box.  He then traveled to Panama where he opened an account under the name of a sham corporation and deposited $4.6 million into the account in 2008.

Dr. Brandner concealed both the existence of the bank accounts and the interest he earned on those accounts from the court in the divorce proceedings and from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  Dr. Brandner owed the IRS $600,000 in additional taxes for the 2008 through 2010 tax years.  He presented the divorce court with a fabricated promissory note to mislead the court into believing he had invested over $3 million in the foreign corporation.

In 2011, Dr. Brandner repatriated over $4.6 million once the divorce was final only to have the funds seized by agents from Homeland Security Investigations.  He then lied to federal agents about his control of the funds.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 7, 2016, before U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason, who presided over the trial of the case.  Dr. Brandner faces a statutory maximum sentence of 95 years in prison and a fine of up to $1.75 million.

“Michael Brandner thought he could operate above the law, but through the dedicated ‎efforts of IRS Special Agents together with the Department of Justice, this verdict shows that the law caught up with him,” stated Special Agent in Charge Teri Alexander of IRS Criminal Investigation. "Let this case serve as a warning that the use of offshore schemes and other tax scams to evade tax and other lawful obligations will not be tolerated."

‎Ms. Loeffler thanked the special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations who investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder of the District of Alaska and Trial Attorney Ignacio Perez de la Cruz of the Tax Division who prosecuted the case.