The Tax Times: Former Fla. Rep. Gets Prison Time For Skipping Tax Returns

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Former Fla. Rep. Gets Prison Time For Skipping Tax Returns

According to Law360, a Florida federal judge sentenced former state Rep. Erik Fresen to 60 days in prison on Friday for failing to file seven years' worth of tax returns while serving as a legislator.

In a hearing in Miami, U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola ordered Fresen to serve 60 days in prison in four 15-day segments, plus one year of probation, according to Fresen's attorney, Jeffrey Neiman of Marcus Neiman & Rashbaum LLP.

Fresen pled guilty in April to not filing his tax return in 2011, when he and his wife made a combined $270,000. Taxes were withheld from his $150,000 income from a private company and his nearly $29,000 legislator's income, but he failed to report other money he earned as a consultant.

But in his plea agreement, prosecutors revealed Fresen had failed to file returns from 2007 through 2013 and owed $214,766 in back taxes. He agreed to fully cooperate with the IRS in its investigation of his income tax liability from 2007 through 2016, according to the agreement.

Fresen had faced up to a year in prison. Prosecutors requested a sentence of at least six months' imprisonment.

The seven-year period when Fresen failed to file tax returns overlaps with his service in the Florida House of Representatives, in which he was a member from 2008 until 2016.

The case is U.S. v. Fresen, case number 1:17-cr-20267, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

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