A solicitor has been struck off after he was sentenced to prison in the United States for his role in helping a wealthy family evade taxes.

Michael John Little, admitted in 2008, was convicted by the United States District Court (Southern District of New York) (pictured) in April 2018 on 19 counts, including conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and corruptly obstructing the due administration of the IRS.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said Little made statements to third parties in correspondence using ‘his status and letterhead as a solicitor of England and Wales, that were misleading and which he knew or ought to have known, were liable to be misleading’.

Little, 74, who was also a barrister regulated by the Bar Standards Board and an attorney in New York, attended part of the substantive SDT hearing. He sought to have  proceedings stayed on the basis that the SDT had no jurisdiction to hear the case. The tribunal refused the application.

The SDT judgment said: ‘The background to the convictions was Mr Little’s role in facilitating tax evasion by a wealthy family after the death of the patriarch of the family.

‘Mr Seggerman died in May 2001, leaving behind a multimillion-dollar inheritance to his wife, Mrs Seggerman and children – much of it in overseas accounts. Mr Little assisted the family in “funnelling these assets into the US in a manner that avoided IRS detection”.’

It added that Little ‘charged fees of over a million dollars for his services’. He was found by the US judge to be a '"a key part" in the criminal enterprise'.

Little, who had pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to 20 months in prison. He said he had been wrongly convicted and sought to challenge the verdicts in the USA.

The SDT said: ‘Mr Little’s convictions were for serious criminal offences carried out over a number of years. The tribunal was satisfied that it was entirely contrary to the ethical standards of the profession to be engaged in serious criminality. Further, it inevitably undermined the confidence the public would have in Mr Little and the provision of legal services.’

It added that Little’s actions ‘represented a complete departure from integrity, probity and trustworthiness, resulting in his incarceration for serious criminal offences, which caused great harm to reputation of the profession’.

Little was struck off and ordered to pay £11,393.25 in costs.

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