A federal court in Illinois has permanently barred two individuals and four companies for operating an alleged scheme to help high-income individuals avoid paying income taxes by funneling money through employee benefit plans. However, the plan was designed to provide tax-free or tax-deferred income for businesses that made from $239 million to more than $300 million in contributions to it.

Oklahoma CPA firm HoganTaylor has dropped the traditional partner management form and adopted a corporate structure. It named Randy Nail, previously leader of its financial institutions practice, as CEO and also created a new board of directors as part of a management restructuring that it said would position it for expansion.

Petz Enterprises has hired Reynold F. Sbrilli to the new position of chief strategy officer for the Tracy, Calif.-based tax software company. Sbrilli was most recently EVP of Commercial Bank Assurance Asia-Pacific for HSBC and has more than 25 years of executive-level experience in the financial services industry, including 21 years at HSBC.