A Florida Certified Public Accountant was sentenced to 18 months in prison for evading payment of more than $2.2 million in income taxes. The sentence followed a guilty plea in the federal tax-evasion case.
From Guilty Plea to Prison Sentence
The accountant received an 18-month prison sentence for failing to pay more than $2.2 million owed to the IRS. An earlier IRS Criminal Investigation announcement said he pleaded guilty on April 9, 2026, to evading payment of more than $2.2 million in income tax liabilities; at the time, sentencing was still to be scheduled.
The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Darcey of the Middle District of Florida, along with Trial Attorneys Marissa R. Brodney and Aaron I. Henricks of the Criminal Division's Tax Section, according to the IRS Criminal Investigation division.
National Enforcement Figures in Context
The IRS reported 23 actions involving new charges against 31 defendants, with estimated intended losses to the public fisc exceeding approximately $350 million. Those figures describe a broader set of cases, not the Fort Myers prosecution.
A similar case out west illustrates the pattern: San Diego CPA Oladapo Olagbemi was sentenced to 18 months in prison for preparing false tax returns containing $5 million in improper deductions and credits, which resulted in $1.5 million in losses to the public fisc, according to court records cited by the Justice Department. Like the Fort Myers case, that sentence also came in at 18 months, despite the different dollar figures involved.
Tax enforcement and professional consequences
For broader context, the IRS projected an annual gross tax gap of $696 billion for tax year 2022. That economy-wide estimate is distinct from the liability in this case; the cited figure does not specify what share is attributable to taxpayers who do not fully pay taxes owed. Separately, IRS Criminal Investigation reported identifying $10.59 billion in financial crimes in fiscal year 2025, including $4.5 billion in tax fraud, according to its annual report. Those agency-wide amounts are not counts of tax-evasion prosecutions. The Justice Department’s Criminal Tax Manual says an attempted-evasion-of-payment case requires proof of an affirmative action to defeat payment, rather than nonpayment alone. Florida’s Division of Certified Public Accounting says the Board of Accountancy may investigate a felony conviction or a crime related to accounting practice, though that does not establish whether the board has taken action in this case, according to the division.
