U.S. District Court Allows Danish Tax Authority to Pursue Fraud Action

On January 9, 2019, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a motion to dismiss a complaint filed by the Danish Customs and Tax Administration (SKAT) against U.S pension funds.  SKAT is responsible for assessing and collecting taxes in Denmark and issuing tax refund to claimants under certain double taxation treaties between Denmark and other countries.  The defendants are U.S. pension plans, their authorized representatives and, in one case, the incorporator involved in creating plans involved in the alleged scheme.  The scheme also involved  payment agents and broker custodians who are not named as defendants.