Westfield Group

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Peter Lowy, the U.S. head of Australian shopping mall operator Westfield Group, on Friday declined to answer questions from Senate lawmakers regarding tax haven activities, claiming Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Lowy appeared Friday before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, after being invited to answer charges that he and other members of his family used offshore structures to hide billions from Australian and possibly U.S. tax authorities.
In a report released last week, Senate investigators detailed how the Lowys allegedly used a Liechtenstein foundation to hold $54 million in assets, beginning in 1997. The foundation's assets grew to $68 million in 2001 when it was dissolved and, according to the family's lawyers, used to fund charities in Israel.

The hearing was brief and produced little new information beyond last week's hearing at which Senate investigators unveiled their findings.
But it was punctuated by an angry exchange between the panel's chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Lowy's lawyer, Robert Bennett. In a statement to reporters, Bennett accused lawmakers of misrepresenting the circumstances under which Lowy failed to appear at the committee's first hearing last Thursday.
At the close of the hearing, Levin repeatedly cut Bennett off, saying that he was not allowed to testify on behalf of his client.


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