The man responsible for the sharpest surge in stuffed animal mania the 90s ever saw is now being charged with federal tax evasion.
Ty Warner, who earned millions when his Beanie Baby business boomed 15 years ago, was accused on Wednesday of failing to claim more than $3 million he stored in an overseas account.
69-year-old Warner pleaded guilty, and will have to cough up $53.6 million, his lawyer, George Scandaglia, wrote in a statement obtained by USA Today.
"This is an unfortunate situation that Mr. Warner has been trying to resolve for several years now," Scandaglia wrote. "Mr. Warner accepts full responsibility for his actions with this plea agreement."
U.S. Attorney Gary Shapiro said that Warner is cooperating with the government concerning the case.
Warner, who still sells stuffed animals through his business TY Inc., was charged in a Chicago federal court after a probe into the U.S. clients of Union Bank of Switzerland revealed some offshore accounts hidden from the IRS.
UBS fessed up in 2009 to aiding taxpayers in their efforts to keep accounts covert, and subsequently had to hand over some information to the government on clients and their accounts.
In a statement released Wednesday, Shapiro said that Warner "went to great lengths" to keep his cache of $3 million secret.
Documents show that Warner has kept up his secret account with UBS since 1996, during the height of his Beanie Baby earnings. In 2002, Warner moved more than $93 million in assets to Kurcher Kantonalbank, another Swiss financial holder.
Warner also engaged in some tax evasion that same year, when he didn't inform his accountants about the additional income and omitted the existence of the money and the bank account from his tax forms.
