The Southern District of New York denied a plaintiff-relator’s motion to remand a dispute over the defendant’s transfer pricing arrangement brought under the New York’s False Claims Act to New York state court. The plaintiff initiated the suit on behalf of the State of New York in state court alleging that the company did knowingly fail to comply with federal transfer pricing rules with regard to transactions with foreign affiliates, and seeking to recover unpaid New York state and city corporate franchise taxes. The defendant, a Swiss limited liability company with a U.S. subsidiary headquartered in New York previously removed the action to federal court.
The relator alleges that the defendant kept two sets of books—one for business purposes and one for tax purposes—and the set of books the defendant’s accounting firm used in preparing the defendant’s New York tax returns was incomplete and did not properly reflect the defendant’s income. As part of its allegation, the plaintiff asserted that the defendant’s U.S. entity improperly used deductions that belonged to its foreign affiliates, thus depriving New York of taxable income. A defendant is liable to New York State under the New York False Claims Act if he/she “knowingly makes, uses, or causes to be made or used, a false record or statement material to an obligation to pay or transmit money or property to the state or a local government.” Unlike the federal False Claims Act, New York’s False Claims Act allows for...
Turkish base fake news in Armenia For several days, a video has been circulating on social media claiming that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan allegedly signed a “secret agreement” with EU ...