Wealthy Golden Beach woman pleads guilty to cheating the IRS out of $1.9 million in taxes
A wealthy Golden Beach woman who owns a vending machine business pleaded guilty on Monday to cheating the federal government out of $1.9 million in taxes by failing to report income on millions of dollars hidden in foreign bank accounts.
Gilda B. Rosenberg, 60, faces up to five in years in prison at her sentencing on May 30 before U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami federal court. She’s convicted of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by concealing undeclared foreign accounts, filing false tax returns and evading taxes over a decade, according to a plea agreement with the Justice Department.
Rosenberg, whose family owns Miami-based Gilly Vending Inc., also pleaded guilty last year to a separate conspiracy charge involving a scheme to defraud the Army and Air Force Exchange Service in Texas by filing false reports on vending machine sales of snacks and beverages to avoid fully paying commissions, according to the Justice Department. Her sentencing in that case is set for April 30.
Stashed money in Israel, Panama, Switzerland, Andorra
Rosenberg, a dual U.S. and Colombian citizen, admitted in the tax-evasion case that she conspired with two family members to hide more than $90 million in assets and income held in undeclared bank accounts in Andorra, Israel, Panama and Switzerland, according to a factual statement filed with her plea agreement in Miami federal court.
For decades, Rosenberg and other family members knew they had not disclosed their ownership of these foreign financial accounts to the U.S. government and not paid any taxes on the income earned from these assets, as was required by law, the statement says.
Starting in the early 2000s, the family members consolidated their assets at accounts with Credit Suisse in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and they told Credit Suisse employees that they were seeking to hide their assets from U.S. authorities, according to the statement. Their assets remained at Credit Suisse until 2013, when the bank closed their accounts because they were U.S. citizens.
Rosenberg and her relatives moved their assets to new accounts at Bank Leumi in Israel, Union Bancaire Privée and PKB Privat Bank SA in Switzerland, and an Andorran bank. Rosenberg was listed as the beneficial owner of accounts at UBP and the Andorran bank, claiming she was a Colombian and not a U.S. citizen.
Rosenberg, along with her relatives, did not file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARS) disclosing their offshore financial accounts, as required by law. In addition, they continued to file false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service that omitted income generated by their offshore assets.
In 2017, Rosenberg and her relatives divided the family’s assets and signed documents to make it appear that she and a relative gifted the offshore assets to another relative who had renounced his U.S. citizenship. Rosenberg and her relatives then tried to transfer assets to her in the United States, prosecutors said.
Rosenberg filed false tax returns from 2009 to 2017 that did not report more than $5.5 million in income she earned from her assets at UBP, which caused a tax loss to the IRS of $1,927,342, according to prosecutors.
This story was originally published March 10, 2025 at 6:23 PM.
