KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - A federal court in California has authorised the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a "John Doe" summons seeking information about US taxpayers who may hold offshore accounts in a Barbados-headquartered Caribbean bank.
The Department of Justice has identified the bank as the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB). It said the order was signed by Senior District Judge Thelton E Henderson.
The Department of Justice said the IRS summons seeks records of FCIB's United States correspondent account at the San Francisco-based bank, Wells Fargo NA and that the summons will allow the IRS to identify US taxpayers who hold or held interests in financial accounts at FCIB and other financial institutions that used FCIB's Wells Fargo correspondent account.