Florida Criminal Defendant to Serve Additional Prison Time for Lying on Pre-Sentencing Financial Disclosure Form

A currently imprisoned Florida businessman was sentenced to an additional 20 months in prison today for willfully omitting assets from a pre-sentencing financial disclosure form he provided to the Justice Department, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez for the Middle District of Florida.

According to documents filed with the court, Casey Padula, 51, formerly of Port Charlotte, Florida, made the false statements on a financial disclosure statement he was required to submit to the government after pleading guilty to tax and bank fraud. On July 17, 2017, in the prior prosecution, Padula was sentenced to 57 months in prison on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit bank fraud. Padula admitted he used offshore entities and accounts to commit the tax fraud and carried out the bank fraud by conducting a fraudulent short-sale transaction designed to reduce or eliminate his $1.5 million mortgage. As part of his plea agreement, Padula was required to provide a full and accurate financial disclosure statement to the government. Instead, Padula submitted a false financial disclosure statement in which he omitted numerous assets, including a boat valued at almost $340,000, at least $80,000 in cash, and a $90,000 Mercedes he had recently purchased for his daughter.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Chapa Lopez thanked special agents of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant Chief Todd Ellinwood of the Tax Division, who is prosecuting the case.