Case Explained: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. EUGENE J. NIKSICH

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-06-04 Docket: 1:22-cv-02411-SCJ The eleventh-circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the United States regarding the defendant’s willful failure to file complete and accurate Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs) for the years 2006 through 2012, and rejected his affirmative defenses of accord and satisfaction and equitable estoppel. The court held that the district court correctly applied the objective standard for willfulness established in *United States v. Rum*, finding that Niksich’s conduct—opening foreign accounts to shield assets from creditors, using an alias for an account, paying fees to hold mail, and signing tax returns with a false “No” or blank response to questions about foreign financial interests—constituted reckless disregard of a known or obvious risk. The court further ruled that the IRS agents lacked actual authority to bind the government to a settlement agreement under federal common law principles, thereby defeating the accord and satisfaction claim, and that Niksich failed to demonstrate the affirmative misconduct required to establish equitable estoppel against the government. However, the court reversed and remanded the portion of the district court’s order concluding that FBAR penalties are not subject to the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment. Relying on the intervening decision in *United States v. Schwarzbaum*, 127 F.4th 259 (11th Cir. 2025), which held that such penalties are indeed subject to the Eighth Amendment, the court determined that remand is necessary to allow the parties to develop a factual record regarding whether the specific penalty assessed was excessive under the new standard. Consequently, the case will proceed on remand for further proceedings limited to the excessiveness analysis. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.