A Florida Certified Public Accountant has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for evading payment of more than $2.2 million in income taxes, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Ronald St. Clair was also ordered to pay $2,343,615.01 in restitution.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

According to court documents and statements made in court, St. Clair accumulated tax debts for 2011 through 2017. In 2020, after the Internal Revenue Service told him it intended to levy his assets, he sold real property he owned and transferred the proceeds into a bank account in a third party's name.

Prosecutors said that after moving the money out of his own name, St. Clair directed it for his personal and business use and intentionally failed to disclose the funds and assets while he was seeking a payment plan with the IRS. At sentencing, the government presented evidence that he concealed income and assets through bank accounts in other people's names and by placing real-estate interests in businesses not held in his own name, layering business entities to hide his control of the funds.

St. Clair pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion. IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case. The sentence is a reminder that a payment plan does not protect assets that are deliberately hidden from the tax authorities, prosecutors said.

Source: TradersUnion, reporting the Justice Department announcement