Axelrod's Court Indictment

N.J. report has sour notes for PSO chief
Panel critical of his role in instrument purchase
By Mackenzie Carpenter

An Orchestra Takes Stock After a Gift Gone Wrong
By Daniel J. Wakin,

Orchestra trustees say errors made in rare strings purchase
By KATHY MATHESON

Dealing in the Instruments of Their Own Demise
By DAVID SCHOENBAUM
THE market in high-end string instruments — with its global reach, 500-year history and product of inimitable romance — is rarely at a loss for action and color. Yet even by its own gaudy standards, it is hard to beat the dramas still unfolding in federal court in Chicago and currently pending at the Alt-Moabit prison in Berlin.

U.S. Senate checking NJSO violin deal 
The 77-year-old Axelrod, arrested in Germany last week after two months on the run from federal tax fraud charges unrelated to the NJSO deal, sold 30 stringed instruments to the orchestra for $17 million. But he claimed the prized violins, violas and cellos were worth $50 million, making him eligible for a sizable tax deduction.

Suits on the lam  
... Herbert Axelrod, a multimillionaire publisher of pet care books who fled the country in April soon after indictment in a tax fraud scheme involving a rare collection of violins. He went to Cuba, then Switzerland, and was arrested last week as he stepped off a plane in Berlin.

Fraud in name of charity spurs lawmakers to revisit the law 
..."It's a symptom of a bigger problem, just like the $600 toilet seat was for the Defense Department," said Grassley about what Axelrod claimed was a $50 million donation to the Smithsonian. The value of the quartet has been questioned.

Could take months for millionaire's extradition 
The warrant stems from a U.S. indictment that accused Axelrod of using Swiss bank accounts to hide income from the Internal Revenue Service. The illegal actions relating to a former vice president of his pet products company, the indictment said.

Jailed Axelrod awaits Berlin hearing 
New Jersey philanthropist-turned-fugitive Herbert Axelrod remained in a jail cell in Germany yesterday, facing extradition to the United States and the possibility of a lengthy prison term if he is convicted of the federal tax fraud charges he fled two months ago.

Smithsonian Benefactor Arrested In Germany  
Axelrod, 76, is charged with defrauding the Internal Revenue Service in a business matter, but that inquiry opened up questions about whether he had deliberately exaggerated the value of instruments he gave the Smithsonian and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra to get a substantial tax break.

Germans detain Axelrod, fugitive in tax-fraud case 

Fraud Charges Greet Charitable Violin Collector at Airport 
The positive press reached its height last year, when Axelrod agreed to sell 30 rare musical instruments to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for the purportedly cut-rate price of $18 million. The price was later reduced to $17 million when Axelrod agreed to forgive a $1 million note on the deal. [...] Axelrod, who began amassing violins in the 1970s, claimed the NJSO instruments were worth nearly $50 million, a figure few people questioned at the time.

FBI probes symphony purchase of violins 

Exiled US philanthropist 'probed' 
The 76-year-old multimillionaire, who made his fortune from a pet care publishing empire, faces up to five years in prison if found guilty of defrauding the US tax authorities by hiding $700,000 in a Swiss bank account - a charge he denies.

Senator Wants Smithsonian Records on $50 Million Gift 
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said he wanted to see any papers related to the gift in 1998 of four Stradivarius musical instruments. At the time of the donation, they were said to be worth $50 million, though that figure has been questioned. The committee is investigating in-kind gifts to charities and the tax implications. "It is troubling that the Smithsonian may be turning a blind eye to tax mischief.

Tax Probe Focuses on Donor of Rare Violins  
Axelrod, who has been living in Cuba since fleeing unrelated federal tax charges in the United States, also sold 30 rare stringed instruments to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra last year at a large claimed discount. That selling price was listed at $18 million -- including $4 million financed by Axelrod himself and later forgiven -- well below the $50 million at which Axelrod valued the 30 instruments.

Wealthy fugitive's assets debated 
...Central Garden countersued, alleged fraud, misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duty. The company claimed he reneged on a promise to repay a $10 million loan.  Eighteen months later, the company went to the U.S. attorney, alleging Axelrod had cooked his books, hidden millions in secret Swiss bank accounts and defrauded the government. The U.S. attorney returned a two-count indictment against Axelrod nearly three weeks ago.

A Violin's Value, and What to Pay the I.R.S. Fiddler 
Senate investigators are questioning whether the instrument sale is representative of a fast-growing tax dodge in which wealthy donors inflate the value of gifts - from rare violins to paintings, period furnishings and even fossils - abetted by docile appraisers, weak tax enforcement and cultural institutions with little interest in making waves.

Axelrod's chief worry now is whether Castro will allow him to stay  
At his age, he says, he's got no time or energy to waste fighting a federal prosecutor who has an arrest warrant for him, or spending his days in court -- or maybe even prison. "I'm an old man," he says, then adds, "I worked hard all my life and I want to relax." Axelrod says he is dumbfounded as to why they are coming after him. Hundreds of thousands of people cheat on their taxes every year, he says -- why would the government go after him?

A LIFE OF Money and myths 
On April 12, 2004, Axelrod, 76 years old, was indicted on federal charges of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and of aiding and abetting the filing of a false tax return. Accused of hiding huge sums of money in secret offshore accounts, he faces a sentence of up to five years in prison if convicted.

Fugitive philanthropist spends time fishing, writing in Cuba 

Cuba Denies Knowledge of U.S. Fugitive  

Axelrod's valuation of violins questioned 

Violin donor scandal taints even New Jersey's elite orchestra 
... in a widely publicized coup last year, the orchestra acquired a unique collection of fine Italian stringed instruments from one of its chief benefactors.  Now the benefactor is a fugitive in Cuba after fleeing federal tax fraud charges in the United States, and the value of the collection has been called into question...

Facing charges, tycoon flees to Havana  

Arts Patron of Rare Violins Vanishes for His Arraignment   

Altered portrait of patron of the arts jolts longtime acquaintances  

Fugitive NJ Philanthropist Flees To Cuba  

Orchestra expects violin deal will stand 

Donor of violins is called a tax cheat  

NJ Philanthropist Indicted On Tax Charges 

04-13-04 Scheme to defraud the IRS

The Maestro  

Medici of the Meadowlands 

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Buys Axelrod Violin Collection 

Sharing the Gift of Music