Indicted Englewood couple sells house for $2.2 million
By Josh Salman
MANASOTA KEY – An Englewood couple indicted on federal charges related to an off-shore tax evasion conspiracy will likely have a couple extra million dollars to help pay their fines.
David Frederick and Patricia L. Hough sold their 5,814-square-foot home in Manasota Key earlier this month for $2.2 million, court records show.
The married couple was indicted on federal charges after the Internal Revenue Service accused them of hiding millions of dollars in proceeds from the sale of two Caribbean medical schools in a Swiss bank account to skirt taxes.
The $35 million that the two doctors reaped when the schools were sold in 2007 made their case the largest since U.S. authorities launched a crackdown on offshore tax evasion in 2008, officials said.
Hough and Fredrick used the proceeds to buy an airplane, and homes in Sarasota and North Carolina, after creating a foundation and other entities to hold money in accounts at UBS and other foreign banks, while filing phony tax returns to “conceal assets and income from the IRS,” according to their indictments.
Hough was convicted by a jury in October and now faces a potential sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy count, along with another three years and a $250,000 fine for filing the false returns. Her sentencing has been scheduled for early next year.
Fredrick reportedly fled after the indictment, leaving his wife to face trial alone.
The IRS said their Englewood home sale this month was not tied to the criminal investigation, and the transaction was not ordered by the federal government.
“This is not a part of the judicial forfeiture,” IRS spokesman Miguel Rivera said Friday. “It’s not connected to any of the court proceedings against them.”
Hough owned two Caribbean-based medical schools — The Saba University School of Medicine in Saba, Netherlands Antilles, and The Medical University of the Americas in Nevis, West Indies.
The couple sold both schools and associated real estate in April 2007, “all of which was deposited into undeclared accounts in the name of the nominee entities,” the Justice Department said.
“The majority of the sale proceeds were not reported to the IRS on their tax returns and no tax was paid,” the agency stated.
Fredrick also transferred more than $1 million to his relatives, the agency noted.
As for their Englewood home, Frederick paid $500,000 for the property, at 7590 Manasota Key Road, in January 1997 and built the house there in 2001.
The buyer, Oxford Princess LLC, is a company from New Albany, Indiana.
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