Berlin
German police this week arrested Herbert Axelrod, a 77-year-old multimillionaire from New Jersey who was on the run for tax evasion. Axelrod, who made his money in pet products and pet-care books and then became a violin collector, is charged with defrauding the IRS. He is also accused of having vastly overestimated—by some $50 million—the value of several 17th-century Stradivarius violins that he donated to the Smithsonian Institution, though charges in that case have not been formally filed. Axelrod fled to Cuba in April and was then spotted in Switzerland, before being nabbed in Germany. If extradited and convicted in the U.S., he could face five years in prison.
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