Dale J. Sexton to Serve 33-Month Prison Term for Concealing $1.5 Million in Income from IRS
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - Dale J. Sexton, 48, formerly of Barneveld, New York, was sentenced today in federal court in Syracuse to 33 months in prison in connection with his previous guilty pleas to filing a false income tax return and to obstructing and impeding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in its administration of the internal revenue laws, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and James D. Robnett, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Special Agent in Charge, New York Field Office. Sexton’s sentence also requires him to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $502,639. Senior United States District Judge Norman A. Mordue, who presided over the case, also ordered Sexton to spend one year on supervised release after completion of his 33-month prison sentence.
Sexton, who most recently resided in Bradenton, Florida, previously admitted in federal court that he failed to report to the IRS more than $1.5 million in income he earned between 2005 and 2008, that he engaged in complicated financial transactions involving numerous bank accounts in the United States and Costa Rica in order to mask and disguise his income and expenses, and that he made false statements to an IRS Revenue Officer in Utica, New York. Sexton also admitted that he filed a false 2008 tax return, claiming that he earned no income that year when he actually earned more than $200,000.
“IRS agents spent years tracing more than 100 bank accounts and tens of thousands of individual financial transactions to piece together Sexton’s fraud scheme. Unfortunately, today’s sentence cannot undo the financial harm suffered by Sexton’s victims, who paid a terrible price for the defendant’s greed in amassing income improperly and failing to report it to the IRS," said U.S. Attorney Hartunian.
According to the plea agreement signed by Sexton, the unreported income related to Sexton’s ownership of multiple commercial real estate businesses in Florida involved in constructing, among other things, commercial “flex" warehouse units. Sexton financed the projects by obtaining loans from banks and investments from private investors. Sexton admitted in the plea agreement that he failed to repay much of the loan money and that he never intended to repay any of the private investors. Several victims filed statements with the Court describing the financially devastating consequences they faced after Sexton defrauded them in order to fund his luxurious lifestyle.
The case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael F. Perry.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
