A businessman who received one of the infamous Clinton pardons has been re-arrested for an alleged tax evasion offence involving a Bermuda company.

In 2001 during the closing days of the Clinton administration, Almon Glenn Braswell was pardoned by former President Clinton for a 1983 fraud conviction involving a baldness treatment

Yesterday, he was back in court, this time with a Los Angeles indictment naming him, his corporate tax accountant and his personal tax attorney.

Internal Revenue Service agents took Braswell into custody on Monday on a sealed indictment charging him with evading taxes on $22.2 million in personal income from 1994 to 1997 and skipping corporate taxes by hiding his control of a Bermuda company.

Attorney Norman Moscowitz, who represented Braswell at his brief initial court appearance, had no comment.

He said he had not had time to talk with Braswell about whether he wanted to fight his removal to California for prosecution.

Braswell was led in and out of court with other inmates, shackled hand and foot.

Clinton granted 177 pardons and clemencies just before leaving office in 2001. Braswell's pardon became one of the most criticised after it was learned the president's brother-in-law had been paid $200,000 for working on the case. Hugh Rodham later returned the money.

Braswell's companies, including Gero Vita International, market Prostata for prostate health, Testerex for sexual vitality and Serezac for depression.

The mail-order business lists a return address in Toronto, Canada, but company employees are based in Marina del Rey, California, and the company's incorporation papers list a Marina del Rey address.

Braswell was charged with tax evasion, filing false returns and conspiracy.

Los Angeles accountant Robert Bruce Miller was charged as Braswell's corporate tax preparer, and Atlanta lawyer William E. Frantz was charged as Braswell's personal tax preparer.

Braswell inflated business expenses on his returns by marking up prices on raw materials for Gero Vita products by two to ten times through a company he controlled, prosecutors charged. Bermuda-based Deleon Global Trading Ltd. was used as the intermediary.

Braswell also used $3.5 million from a Deleon account with the Bank of Bermuda to buy a home in Miami's affluent Coconut Grove neighbourhood in November 1997, the indictment said. Frantz later told IRS examiners that Braswell did not own Deleon.