Businessman Gambles with the IRS and Loses

A Florida businessman, Alejandro Gomez, pleaded guilty to tax evasion after causing the IRS a tax loss of over $545,000.

Gomez ran Fleischmann’s Produce, a company that imported fresh herbs for wholesale distribution, and got in the habit of writing off gambling losses as company expenses.

In 2014 Gomez lost $896,951 gambling, and in 2015 his gambling debt totaled $1,051,213. When he filed his taxes for those years he declared the gambling losses as cost of goods sold.  This in turn reduced the income that Gomez received from the business, which he also underreported.

In addition to restitution, Gomez faces up to five years in prison.