Swiss bank Banque Pictet admits hiding $5.6 billion of Americans' money from IRS

[DFW]

19. It was on the record, at least for a while.

The gold was imported legally into the UK and then into the USA. There is no import tax on gold, so there was no incentive to hide it. The European and US distributors who wholesaled out the coins all did it above board and on the books, all by check or wire. What the KGB guys did with the money, or where they ultimately parked it, I have no idea. If they were citizens of Russia (or Costa Rica by then), all they had to do was declare everything, and the US government would have had no problem. You are a non-resident citizen of a friendly country wanting to buy a few McMansions for a few hundred million? By all means! But this would have been in the multi billions, and who the hell knows what you do with that kind of cash if you can already buy everything you want?