Tax Evasion Scandals

Illegally received $5.5 million lobbying for a Venezuelan businessman who wanted to be removed from ICE's "Most Wanted" list and then formed fake shell companies using the names of a law firm and a government official without their knowledge which he used to create false invoices and conceal his money from tax authorities

Illegally obtained over $30 million in loans by lying to numerous financial institutions about their assets and then failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal taxes on the ill-gotten money

Failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of taxable income to the government and siphoned even more to himself through a PAC that he earned from working as an unregistered foreign agent and lobbyist for the Venezuelan government

Unlawfully evaded paying almost $2 million in taxes over a sixteen-year period on items including rent, luxury cars and private school tuition for his grandchildren

Illegally sheltered hundreds of thousands of dollars in a trust and a company he owned in order to avoid paying $205,410 in back taxes he and his wife owed to the IRS

Failed to pay roughly $400,000 in taxes and penalties he owed on his 2017 tax bill

Stole more than $800,000 in legal fees owed to his law firm by transferring the money to his personal account and then didn't pay the $254,628 tax bill that would have been due had the money been acquired legally

Strongarmed leaders of a copper mining company into purchasing a large tract of land from a business associate who owed him money in exchange for him sponsoring legislation that would be favorable to the company, even once explicitly telling those involved "no Sandlin Property, no bill" and then failed to pay taxes on the $733,000 he received from the sale once the deal went through

Accepted $255,000 worth of lavish home renovations and over $236,000 in rental payments from billionaire business developer Eitan Wertheimer in exchange for using his position as NYPD Commissioner to lobby on Wertheimer's behalf with city officials, failed to report the additional income on his federal taxes and lied to federal investigators when confronted about it

Accepted free vacations and construction services at his vacation home valued at $107,000 in exchange for directing state contracts to a prominent businessman and also failed to report the income on his taxes