Businessman sentenced to 57 months in prison for fraud

PORT CHARLOTTE — Port Charlotte businessman Casey Padula was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for conspiring to commit tax and bank fraud.

Padula, 48, was the sole shareholder of marketing and information technology business Demandblox Inc. According to a Department of Justice statement, Padula conspired to move funds for his benefit from Demandblox to offshore accounts in Belize, depositing about $2.5 million.

He used the funds to pay for personal expenses and purchase personal assets, the statement says, falsely recording the payments in Demandblox's corporate books as intellectual property rights or royalty fees. He deducted them as business expenses on 2012 and 2013 corporate tax returns. Padula's false deductions caused a tax loss of more than $728,000.