Multiple Federal Law Enforcement agencies executed search warrants at three Caterpillar offices.
Federal agents entered Caterpillar’s World Headquarters Building in Peoria, Building A-D in East Peoria and the Morton offices. The identical search warrants allowed the federal government to seize a wide range of documents, hardware and software related to the movement of any products between the U-S and Switzerland, specifically the Swiss Subsidiary Caterpillar created.
In 2014, the US Senate issued a report that may be related to the criminal search. The 99-page report was titled ‘Caterpillar’s Offshore Tax Strategy.’ The report alleges Caterpillar used the subsidiary to avoid paying $2.4 billion in taxes over a period of 13 years.
The F-D-I-C-Office of Inspector General, the I-R-S-Criminal Investigation Division, and the U-S Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement participated in the search of Caterpillar’s offices.
A statement from Caterpillar says only confirmed the search warrants were executed and said the company is cooperating with the investigation.