The former president of the Miami-Dade public hospital network, the Jackson Health System funded by taxpayers, pleaded guilty to tax evasion this week, after accepting his responsibility for refusing to pay his personal taxes for several years and eluding the attempts of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to collect them.
Darryl Sharpton, 61, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison when sentenced, set for March 7. Sharpton must also pay the United States government an indeterminate amount of money in taxes it owes and in fines.
In May of 2011, Sharpton was appointed as president of the Miami-Dade Public Health Trust that manages Jackson Hospital, among other public hospital centers, as part of a financial recovery team charged with bringing the system out of imminent bankruptcy. Sharpton served as president from 2013 to 2015 and left the post in 2016 after the end of his term.
According to court documents, Sharpton tried to evade personal taxes he owed from 2004 to 2008 and then in 2010. During those years, Sharpton reported his income from the Sharpton Group on a 1040 Return but did not pay the taxes he owed.
The guilty plea that Sharpton signed on Thursday points out that there is a disagreement about the amount of money he owes to the IRS. Sharpton said the loss is more than $ 550,000 but less than $ 1.5 million, while federal prosecutors believe the loss reaches more than $ 1.5 million but less than $ 3.5 million.
If Sharpton and federal prosecutors fail to agree on the amount before March 7, then each party must present evidence to the judge at the sentencing hearing, according to the plea agreement.
