The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) says a Florida businessman with offshore accounts in Belize and the Cayman Islands has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for conspiring to commit tax and bank fraud.
According to documents filed with the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Casey Padula, 48, of Port Charlotte, was the sole shareholder of Demandblox, Inc., a marketing and information technology business.
Off-shore accounts
The documents say Padula conspired with others to move funds for his benefit from Demandblox to offshore accounts in Belize. He disguised these transfers as business expenses.
Padula created two offshore companies in Belize: Intellectual Property Partners Inc. (IPPI) and Latin American Labor Outsourcing Inc. (LALO).
Court documents indicated Padula opened and controlled bank accounts in the names of these entities at Heritage International Bank & Trust Limited (Heritage Bank) located in Belize.
From 2012 through 2013, Padula caused periodic payments to be sent from Demandblox to his accounts at Heritage Bank. He deposited about US$2,490,688.
Tax Fraud
Padula, according to court documents, used the funds to pay for personal expenses and purchase significant personal assets.
The DOJ said he falsely recorded these payments in Demandblox’s corporate books as intellectual property rights or royalty fees. Furthermore, he deducted them as business expenses on Demandblox’s 2012 and 2013 corporate tax returns, committing tax fraud.
Bank Fraud
Padula also conspired with others to commit bank fraud. The DOJ said he had a mortgage on his Port Charlotte, Florida home of about US$1.5 million with Bank of America (BoA).
In 2012, the DOJ said he sent a letter to the bank stating that he could no longer repay his loan. At the same time, Padula provided Robert Robinson III, 43, who acted as a nominee buyer, with over US$625,000 from his IPPI bank account in Belize to fund a short sale of Padula’s home.
In addition to the sentence imposed by US District Court Judge Sherri Polster Chappell, Padula will serve three years of supervised release, pay a fine of US$100,000 and pay restitution of US$728,609 to the IRS, and US$739,459.90 to BoA.
