"MICHAEL J. GARCIA, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that his Office has entered into a non-prosecution cooperation agreement (the "Agreement") with the law firm Jenkens & Gilchrist ("J&G") for criminal tax violations arising from J&G's tax shelter activities. In a statement to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (the "Office"), J&G admitted to developing and marketing fraudulent tax shelters, as well as to issuing fraudulent opinion letters.

This decision by the Office was based on four principal factors: J&G's inability to continue practicing law as a firm; J&G's acceptance of responsibility for developing and marketing fraudulent tax shelters, and for rendering fraudulent opinions in connection with those shelters; J&G's cooperation with the Government's investigation into the tax shelter activities of the firm and its individual lawyers; and J&G's entry into an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") to resolve the IRS's promoter penalty audit of J&G, including the payment of a civil penalty.

J&G has recognized, in its statements to this Office and in the Agreement, that its tax shelter practice has caused serious damage to its reputation, revenues and stability, and that as a result it ultimately cannot continue in business. It was once a thriving firm with over 600 attorneys and offices across the nation. Approximately two-thirds of those attorneys left, and its revenues declined sharply, as Government scrutiny of the firm's tax shelter practices intensified, as civil suits were filed, and as the firm's reputation was accordingly tarnished. The firm has advised the Office that it has recently closed several of its offices, that it will be closing the last of its offices -- its flagship office in Dallas -- at the end of the month, and that J&G will no longer engage in the practice of law.

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