Former Owner of Florida Produce Business Sentenced to Prison for Tax Evasion

F.P. Report

FLORIDA: A Florida man was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison for tax evasion, at a proceeding in federal district court in Miami.

According to court documents, Alejandro Gomez, of Broward County, operated Fleischmann’s Produce, a company that imported fresh herbs for wholesale distribution. In March 2015, Gomez filed a 2014 corporate tax return for Fleischmann’s, which falsely reported $896,951 in personal gambling expenditures as cost of goods sold, thereby overstating total business expenditures. The next year, Gomez caused a 2015 corporate tax return to be filed, which again falsely characterized $1,051,213 in gambling expenditures as cost of goods sold. Because the information on the corporate returns flowed through to his individual tax returns, Gomez also substantially underreported his personal income for 2014 and 2015. In total, Gomez caused a tax loss to the IRS of over $545,000.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman ordered Gomez to serve one year of supervised release. As a further part of the plea agreement, Gomez paid $545,205 in restitution to the IRS.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Grace Albinson and David Zisserson of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.