Date: December 15, 2023 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Ocala, FL — Senior United States District Judge Gregory A. Presnell has sentenced Frantz Brignol to two years in federal prison for tax evasion. In addition to the prison sentence, Brignol was ordered to pay the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) $896,588.89 for his outstanding tax liabilities. A federal jury had found Brignol guilty in August 2023. According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Brignol amassed more than $600,000 in tax liabilities to the IRS between 2014 and 2020. He evaded tax payments on his income by hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in his mother's bank accounts (for which he had signatory authority), trading funds overseas in his mother's name, and making materially false statements to the IRS on financial disclosure forms. "Dr. Brignol lied to the IRS about his assets and exploited his elderly mother as a nominee, all to evade paying his fair share of federal income tax," said Tara K. Reed IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) Acting Special Agent in Charge. "You cannot brush off your tax obligations. Today's sentencing reinforces the principle that everyone, regardless of status, will pay the price if they choose to violate the law." This case was investigated by the CI. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Hannah Nowalk and William S. Hamilton. 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. 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.
