“Beanie Baby Billionaire Requests Leniency after Tax Evasion Conviction: H. Ty Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Baby plush toys and owner of Ty Warner Hotel & Resorts, whose operations include the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, New York, asked a judge to give him probation, rather than prison, for evading more than $5.5 million in taxes on secret Swiss accounts that held as much as $107 million. (He pled guilty on October 2, 2013, and agreed to pay a civil penalty of approximately $53.6 million.) Warner is to be sentenced in Chicago on January 14, 2014, and faces up to five years in prison under nonbinding guidelines. The Beanie Baby creator and hotelier requests probation with community service, rather than a prison sentence. U.S. v. H. Ty Warner, N.D. Ill., No. 13 CR 00731.”

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