Lake County Man Indicted For Tax Evasion And Tax Fraud

Orlando, Florida – United States Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez announces the return of an indictment charging Douglas V. Oakes (60, Bella Collina) with one count of tax evasion and six counts of making false and fraudulent statements on tax returns. If convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison on the tax evasion count and up to three years’ imprisonment on each of the false statement counts.

According to the

, in 2015, in order to evade the payment of his income taxes for 2002 to 2005, Oakes falsely represented to the IRS that he was not employed or self-employed, earned no income, and that he did not have a financial interest in any business entities. In fact, Oakes was the CEO of Dealerindustry.com, LLC (“DI”) d/b/a Automotive Capital Corporation, a company in which he had a substantial financial interest. To conceal from the IRS his financial interest in DI, Oakes registered his daughters and others as DI’s managing members with the Florida Department of State, removed his name and title from DI’s website and from the website LinkedIn, and caused false DI ownership documents to be created, signed, and backdated. Between 2015 and 2018, Oakes further attempted to conceal his assets from the IRS by purchasing a beachfront home in Merritt Island in the name of a nominee, causing false DI ownership documents to be created, signed, and backdated, and having tax returns prepared for his deceased daughter in which DI’s income was falsely claimed to be his daughter’s income.

The indictment further charges that in September 2015, Oakes submitted fraudulent tax returns to the IRS for the 2009 to 2014 tax years, each of which falsely claimed that he had no tax due and owing. The Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation estimates that Oakes’s actions resulted in approximately $1.1 million of tax losses.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Chauncey A. Bratt.