A former top executive of accounting firm BDO Seidman and three others were convicted in Manhattan federal court for their roles in a tax shelter scheme in which they designed, marketed, and implemented fraudulent tax shelters used by wealthy individuals to avoid paying taxes to the IRS.

Denis Field, the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of BDO Seidman, former head of its national tax practice, and one of three heads of BDO's "Tax Solutions Group;" Paul Daugerdas, a lawyer and the former head of the Chicago Office of the Jenkens & Gilchrist law firm and its tax practice, and Donna Guerin, a tax lawyer and shareholder at J&G's Chicago Office, were each convicted of conspiring to defraud the IRS and to evade taxes, and of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the internal revenue laws. The defendants were also convicted on multiple counts of tax evasion relating to the use of various tax shelters for specified clients, and of mail fraud. Daugerdas also was convicted of tax evasion based on his use of fraudulent tax shelters to eliminate or reduce his personal income tax liabilities between 1999 and 2001.

The former chief financial officer of CSK Auto pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities and mail fraud in connection with a scheme to misstate the company's reported earnings from 2001 through 2006, according to the government.

Don W. Watson Watson admitted that, from 2001 to 2006, he and others conspired to misstate CSK's income by concealing that the company had tens of millions of dollars in vendor rebates that CSK had claimed as income but were never collected.   The rebates were in fact not owed to the company or could not be collected and therefore should have been written off CSK's books.   As a result of the fraud scheme, CSK reported tens of millions of dollars more in pre-tax income than it in fact earned.    

According to the government, CSK misstated its receivables and pre-tax income in its annual reports in fiscal years 2002, 2003 and 2004 by about $10 million, $23 million and $19 million, respectively.