Is the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) Walter White’s money laundering dream?

Another way to launder money in 2014 with the help of the IRS who competes with this even against organized crime or the Mafia : First, one transfers the funds to an offshore account. Second, one enters the voluntary disclosure program and pays all the back taxes, fines, interest and a in-lieu of FBAR fine of 27.5%. The money is now freshly laundered and can pay for Walter White’s childrens’ education, the legal costs for the defense of Skylar against criminal charges, and his extended family’s escalating health care expenses.The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure program is really a “professional courtesy” that the IRS offers to criminals. This is also true of “Streamlined” and even the traditional voluntary disclosure. I have the impression that many people think that “they have to enter these programs” because they are the law. They are NOT the law. The law is that people have to pay taxes (Title 26) and file FBARs (Title 31).
In fairness to the IRS, I don’t think that they say that people MUST enter these IRS programs. But, the tax laws of the United States are really enforced by the lawyers and accountants. Why the lawyers and accountants encourage these programs, without informing people that they are NOT the law, is still a mystery to me.
If you are a criminal “OVDP” can be your ticket to a peaceful retirement.
If you are a hard working American abroad – stay away from this.
Perhaps our mistake has been focusing on what OVDI and OVDP has done to minnows because all we ever hear is how “ignorance of the law is no excuse”, we need to “pay our share” and everyone’s all-time favourite, “don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Instead, we should make a template/scale of how much money the government loses on that “professional courtesy,” and compare it with what they get from the "little guy".
 Tax Scam: IRS Pays Out Billions in Fraudulent Refunds 


Now this is clearly the implication of the OVDP program of the IRS. The IRS Frequently Asked Questions says this:

What are some of the criminal charges I might face if I don’t come in under OVDP and the IRS examines me?
Possible criminal charges related to tax returns include tax evasion (26 U.S.C. § 7201), filing a false return (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1)) and failure to file an income tax return (26 U.S.C. § 7203). Willfully failing to file an FBAR and willfully filing a false FBAR are both violations that are subject to criminal penalties under 31 U.S.C. § 5322.
A person convicted of tax evasion is subject to a prison term of up to five years and a fine of up to $250,000. Filing a false return subjects a person to a prison term of up to three years and a fine of up to $250,000. A person who fails to file a tax return is subject to a prison term of up to one year and a fine of up to $100,000. Failing to file an FBAR subjects a person to a prison term of up to ten years and criminal penalties of up to $500,000.

However, the New Jersey Law Journal further explains the benefits of OVDP, with an important exception (emphasis mine):

What Advantages Does OVDP Offer?

OVDP must be distinguished from both other formalized, IRS-sanctioned methods of coming into compliance announced on June 18, 2014, i.e. the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedure (SFCP) and informal ones used by some taxpayers such as “quiet” or “semi-quiet” disclosure.
Only the OVDP offers what amounts to amnesty from criminal prosecution to an entire group of noncompliant taxpayers. The door is closed only to those who are either already under IRS audit, those engaged in illegal activity to produce the unreported income and to the promoters of the use of offshore tax avoidance schemes and others whose names IRS already knew.
The OVDP incorporates elements of the prior civil settlement initiatives IRS had used effectively to resolve abusive tax shelter cases and caps the taxpayer’s civil tax exposure. This gives the taxpayer a predictable financial cost for “fessing up” and avoiding criminal prosecution.

In the criminal world, profits are to be made and everyone involved gets a piece of the action. By skimming profits from ill-gotten gains the IRS has become indistinguishable from the scoundrels who hide dirty money in foreign accounts. Or are we to believe that the billions of dollars that the IRS has made from OVDP has all come from hard-working successful crystal-clean Americans (pun intended), whose only crime is that they wanted to hide their otherwise completely legal investments from the IRS? But we know nothing about these people or where they obtained their money. There has been no transparency. And where there is no transparency there is no accountability either.
We know that “benign actors” have felt the brunt of the OVDP. These are people with innocent accounts in their country of residence who unwittingly entered an IRS program designed to launder the money of criminals. The punishment of benign actors renders the IRS a criminal in and of itself. To punish the innocent is no less a crime than to let the guilty go free.
Finally, the OVDP is a program created out of whole cloth by the IRS. There is neither legislative authority nor judicial oversight. It is the rogue action of the executive branch of government. Where there are no checks, there are no balances either.