So for the price of an island, you can also own an apartment in Manhattan.  Damn! The recent sale marks the highest price in Manhattan’s real estate history. ”

With eight bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, formal and informal dining rooms and sweeping terraces, there is about 10,000 square feet of interior space — valued at about $5,250 per square foot, Miller said. The real estate taxes alone on the transaction came to nearly $1.5 million.” According to CNNmoney.com

“The 53-year-old Plymouth man was indicted in August 2011 along with his ex-wife, Holly Damiani, and tax preparer, Michael James Murry, for defrauding the Internal Revenue Service by failing to pay their true tax obligatioins.

As a result, Wirth underpaid his tax obligation by $2.5 million to $7 million. Part of his plea involves paying an unspecified amount of restitution to the IRS.

Last week, Damiani pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false federal individual income tax return. She awaits sentencing. Murry’s case is pending

Facebook may change the world of real estate in California soon

For Silicon Valley residents, the looming Facebook IPO looks to be causing a frenzy in the surrounding real estate market. Homes and agents are eager to sell houses as a result of the pending IPO. See this article from CNNMoney.com. If you live in Palo Alto or the surrounding area, you may make a boat load on your real estate soon. We will see.

Jeffrey Wirth, Michael J. Murry, CPA; and Wirth’s ex-wife, Holly are all indicted on felony tax evasion and fraud counts. The indictment reads that the Wirth’s and their accountant, Michael Murry of Murry and Murry Ltd., allegedly diverted company funds for personal use. In short, the government is accusing all of diverting millions of dollars in eligible taxable income and calling them corporate expenses. They used that income to pay for the building of a multimillion dollar mansion located on an island in a bay called St. Alban’s Bay in Lake Minnetonka. In addition, the funds were used to to pay for vacations, gym memberships, airline tickets, and other lavish gifts alleged by the US attorney’s office.

In this economy, the government is wanting to throw the book at the potential tax cheats for allegedly only declaring $25,000.00 a year in personal income instead of the millions they earned and used to pay for their lavish lifestyle. Murry is also charged for helping them evade the taxes and then for preparing false corporate and personal tax returns.

We will see what happens with the mansion and the freedom of all those involved. So far, it doesn’t pass the smell test for innocence. However, you never know what good lawyers can do these days.

You can see the initial Star Tribune article here.

This is not the first time Prince has been in financial trouble in Minnesota. Last year, he reportedly paid $1.3million in back and current property taxes to Carver County.

He currently owes about $386,000 to the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co.  This is seams like a  drop in the bucket for a famous pop artist like Prince.  However, it seems he is a better singer then business man.

The property currently is just the 20 acres with a tennis court and gaurd house locaed on Galpin in Chanhassen, MN. The value is $1.15million down from $1.5 million a year ago according to Carver County records.

For home owners that are having problems, this may be the way to go.  Such a clever idea for an ad company. Adzookie’s executives say they have had 1000s of inquiries already.  I wonder what city  zoning would have to say about this in the future.

Click here to read the Adzookie article on CnnMoney.com.