Boca Raton CFO gets prison for tax evasion

By Palm Beach Business.com

FORT LAUDERDALE — The former chief financial officer of Florida Design Inc. has been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion as a result of his scheme to embezzle about $1.5 million from the company.

Federal Judge William Zloch also sentenced Harvey Fein, 68, of Coral Springs to three years of supervised release.

Fein was chief financial officer of Florida Design, an interior design magazine based in Boca Raton. According to court documents, stole company checks, made them payable to Florida Design, and forged the signature on the checks. He then deposited the forged checks into the fraudulent Florida Design accounts that he created and controlled.

Altogether, Fein took about $1.5 million from the company between 2001 and 2005 but did not report the embezzled funds on his tax returns.

The IRS said Fein should have paid about $440,000 in additional taxes.