WASHINGTON (CNN) - A Washington business executive who earned nearly a half-billion dollars through off-shore ventures has been indicted in a massive $200 million income tax evasion scheme, federal law enforcement officials announced Monday.

Telecommunications entrepreneur Walter Anderson, 51, was arrested Saturday and was scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate judge Monday.

The 12-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury under seal last week charges that Anderson engaged in the elaborate tax evasion scheme, obstructed the IRS, and defrauded the government by failing to pay taxes owed to the federal government and the District of Columbia.

Anderson was involved in starting up long-distance telecommunications companies.

The indictment charges that between 1992 and 1996, Anderson transferred his ownership in three telecommunications companies -- Mid-Atlantic Telecom, Esprit Telecom and Telco Communications Group -- to another of his corporate entities established in the British Virgin Islands.

If convicted, he could face up to 80 years in prison.

-- from Justice Producer Terry Frieden