Owner of Florida healthcare companies withheld $10M in employee taxes, bought yacht, shopped at high-end retailersJacksonville drug dealer pleads guilty in brazen, retaliatory drive-by shooting on I-95 in St. Johns CountyMake household chores easier and more with these Insider DealsFILE - The seal of the Department of Justice is pictured, Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington. – A Florida man who owned healthcare companies pleaded guilty to withholding nearly $7.
Prosecutors said he misappropriated the funds to purchase a yacht and went on a personal spending spree at luxury retailers like Cartier and Bergdorf Goodman, resulting in a loss of over $10 million to the IRS.Paul Walczak, from Palm Beach Gardens, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the employment tax charge and one year for failing to file his personal income taxes. Additionally, he may face a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.
According to the IRS Criminal Investigation, Walczak managed a network of interconnected healthcare companies operating under various names, including Palm Health Partners and Palm Health Partners Employment Services . At one point, he employed over 600 people and paid over $24 million annually in payroll.In 2014, the IRS had already penalized him for not paying employees' taxes, neglecting to pay $3,480,111 of the business’s portion of employee Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Walczak used over $1 million from his business bank accounts to buy a yacht and transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to his personal bank accounts, spending lavishly at prestigious stores with the withheld taxes from his employees' wages.Jenn Samsel joined WJXT in September 2024 as a Content Gather. She has a passion for writing, reporting and is a weather/Hurricane enthusiast. She is excited to be part of News 4 Jax team. She graduated from the A.I Ft.