Gifts are never taxable to the recipient.
Gifts of more than $14,000 per person per year must be reported to the IRS, but no gift tax is actually owed unless the lifetime amount of gifts plus the person's estate is more than $5.4 million. (And the president is trying to eliminate that.)
So you can do anything you want. The giver is the one who is trying to evade the law for some reason. If they are so wealthy that they actually owe gift tax, then they are guilty of tax evasion (if caught) and if they don't owe gift tax, they are breaking the law and making themselves look suspicious for no gain or benefit to themselves.
Also, beware that lots of scams begin with "gifts" that aren't really.
