Sentencing set today for tax cheat Frank Amodeo

Orlando businessman Frank L. Amodeo will learn his fate Tuesday afternoon when a federal judge sentences him for cheating the government out of about $180 million in taxes.

Amodeo, 48, signed a plea deal last year, admitting to five felonies including failure to collect and pay payroll taxes and obstructing a federal investigation.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge John Antoon II accepted Amodeo's guilty plea and adjudicated him guilty.

Amodeo faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years and fines that could top $360 million.

Amodeo's case is one of the largest employment tax-fraud cases in IRS history.

Amodeo developed the private-equity firm Mirabilis Ventures Inc., which created and bought distressed companies, including ones that provided payroll services. He purposefully held onto employee withholding taxes that should have gone to the IRS.

Mirabilis grew into a conglomerate of about 70 companies before it first began unraveling in 2006.

Amodeo's sentencing proceedings began earlier this month. He testified, and so did a psychiatrist, who said Amodeo suffers from a "severe psychiatric illness" and that illness played a major role in the crimes he committed.


Orlando Sentinel