Doc faces jail time on $30M tax fraud

ENGLEWOOD — A federal jury convicted an Englewood-based doctor of four counts of filing false tax returns and conspiring to defraud the IRS of more than $30 million in income and assets.

Dr. Patricia Lynn Hough faces a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy count, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office. The false return counts each carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. U.S. District Judge John Steele is scheduled to sentence Hough in February; she was convicted Oct. 25 after a trial in Fort Myers.

Authorities contend Hough and her husband, Dr. David Fredrick, who is awaiting trial on similar charges, concealed millions of dollars in assets and income in offshore bank accounts at UBS and other foreign banks. They then filed false individual income tax returns, which failed to report the existence of those foreign accounts or the income earned in those accounts. Hough and her husband, according to prosecutors, then used the funds in their undeclared accounts to purchase an airplane, two homes in North Carolina and a condo in Sarasota.