Penalty for Tax Evasion: Almost $22 Million!

Tax evasion is getting costly. Example from The Wall Street Journal: 

The U.S. government already has won about 50 criminal cases and collected at least $5.5 billion in connection with undeclared offshore accounts. On Jan. 8, Mary Estelle Curran, a 79-year-old widow best known for volunteer work, pleaded guilty to criminal charges of filing false tax returns and evading about $668,000 in federal tax on $40 million her husband left her in a secret Swiss bank account at UBS. She agreed to pay almost $22 million, which is believed to be the largest penalty in a criminal case on offshore accounts since the UBS agreement.

Ms. Curran is scheduled to be sentenced in West Palm Beach, Fla., federal court March 26. She faces up to six years in prison.