Date: Dec. 19, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Orlando, FL — U.S. District Judge Wendy W. Berger has sentenced James Fabius King, a/k/a Douglas Mesadieu, to 12 months’ confinement for tax evasion, including 6 months in federal prison and 6 months of home incarceration. The court also ordered King to pay restitution in the amount of $546,479, which represents the losses to the United States as the result of King’s conduct. King entered a guilty plea on June 17, 2024. According to court documents, King earned income of $1,758,307 in 2013, for which he had federal income tax due and owed $546,479. Between 2014 and 2017, King used nominee businesses to pay personal expenses and car payments on his $151,890 Audi R8 sports car. He also transferred title of three luxury cars that he owned—an Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, and Bentley—into the name of a nominee business. King took these actions to evade the seizure of his assets to pay the tax debt. “The dishonesty exhibited by the defendant is a clear violation of the laws we all abide by,” said Ron Loecker, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Tampa Field Office. “While we may not always like it, we each have a responsibility to our country and ultimately to each other. We will not ignore attempts to cheat the tax system for personal gain.” This case was investigated by IRS-CI. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Chauncey A. Bratt. IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.