Tampa Bay Business Journal -
May 27, 2009
by Michael Hinman Staff writer
Frank L. Amodeo could be 70 by the time he steps outside a prison.
U.S. District Judge John Antoon II Tuesday sentenced Amodeo, the former leader of Mirabilis Ventures Inc., to 22 years and six months in federal prison for conspiring to commit wire fraud, obstructing an agency proceeding, impeding the Internal Revenue Service and failing to remit payroll taxes.
Amodeo also will lose more than $1 million seized from various accounts as well as three homes, luxury vehicles, commercial real estate, a Learjet and his corporations. Antoon also ordered Amodeo to pay $181 million, the amount prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office say he owes in payroll tax funds.
Amodeo pleaded guilty to the charges last September. A one-time player in the failed Trump Tower Tampa project, he reportedly purchased the assets of the 52-story tower along with a second related project in Clearwater. Frank Dagostino, head of the then Trump Tower Tampa developer SimDag-RoBEL, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal in October 2007 that while there was a handshake deal for Mirabilis to purchase the project, it was a deal that was never consummated.
Amodeo originally faced up to 370 years in prison and fines of more than $6.75 million after he and other unnamed executives failed to pay the IRS $181.1 million, including $129.7 million in FICA and withholding taxes. It started with $7.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2004 with two businesses he controlled — Sunshine Cos. III and Sunshine Staff Leasing. It then continued over the next two years with Professional Benefit Solutions for the remaining $174 million.
Investigators at the time of his original indictment in August 2008 said Amodeo included a number of companies in the activity acting as professional employee organizations, which would lease employees to other companies. Other companies believed to be involved in the scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, were AEM Inc., AQMI Strategy Corp., Common Paymaster Corp., Nexia Strategy Corp., Presidion Corp., Presidion Solutions, Quantum Delta Enterprises, Wellington Capital Group and various others.
Last October, indictments were handed down against many of the companies associated with the scheme. They are charged with conspiracy and wire fraud, and could face fines of up to $400 million.
Contact Information:
FRANK AMODEO
INMATE NUMBER:48883-019
AGE, RACE, AND SEX: 49-White-M
RELEASE DATE: 12-30-2028
MAILING ADDRESS:
FCI COLEMAN LOW
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
P.O. BOX 1031
COLEMAN, FL 33521
December 09, 2009
By Willoughby Mariano, Orlando
A private plane, two luxury homes and millions of dollars of property once owned by a convicted Orlando tax cheat were among ill-gotten gains that helped boost forfeitures to the government during the last fiscal year, federal prosecutors said.
Prosecutors from the Middle District of Florida, which includes Orlando, seized a total of $43 million in cash and property during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
The amount is double what was collected the previous fiscal year, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
About $17 million of the proceeds was used to compensate crime victims. About $7.4 million was shared with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, officials said.
A large chunk of the forfeiture total came from the case of Frank Amodeo, 49, who is serving a 22 1/2-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to cheating the government out of $181 million in taxes.
It was one of the largest employment tax-fraud cases in history.
The property and cash seized from Amodeo include, according to court documents:
* His 5,000 square-foot family home in Orlando's Lake Cherokee neighborhood, which was purchased for $1.5 million in 2005.
* A historic home less than a block away, purchased for $650,000 earlier this year.
* A LearJet.
* A Chattanooga, Tenn., property that sold for $7.2 million in 2008.
* A 2006 Harley Davidson motorcycle.
* At least $9 million in promissory notes.
Mirabilis Ventures, Inc., Amodeo's private-equity firm, pocketed employee withholding taxes that should have gone to the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors alleged.
Amodeo once hobnobbed with Orlando's elite, donating thousands of dollars to local charities. Today, he is being held at the Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, according to federal prison records.
