Ex-accountant gets 17 years in laundering case

But U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn overruled all but one of Fernandez's objections at the three-hour hearing in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

''The court finds that Mr. Harris was the go-to man,'' Cohn said. ``Mr. Harris was the one who devised the scheme; he was the one who directed the scheme and he was the one who orchestrated this scheme.''

A federal jury convicted Harris last November of tax evasion, money laundering and conspiracy in helping the Freon refrigerant smugglers, Aurelio and Joseph Vigna, and health and beauty aid supplier Moises Kriger, to cheat the Internal Revenue Service out of millions in excise and income taxes.

At the time, the IRS said Harris faced seven to nine years in prison.

But when the sentencing recommendations came in nearly double -- a pre-sentencing report called for prison time of 15 ½ years to 19 ½ years -- Fernandez battled point after point with Justice Department Tax Division trial lawyer Shelly L. Goldklang as he tried to gain a more lenient prison term before sentencing.

''He doesn't earn anything. He doesn't run the day-to-day operations,'' Fernandez said in arguing that Harris deserved to be treated like the others convicted in the schemes.

SENTENCING RULES

But Goldklang insisted the sentencing recommendations were correct and that the others had admitted responsibility. ''They cooperated and pled guilty,'' she said.

Cohn also rejected arguments that Harris, who lived in Panama and then Nicaragua for more than a decade, was not a U.S. citizen or that his health required special attention not available in prison.

The judge also supported the contention that Harris should receive a more severe sentence because his use of fictitious entities, shell companies and offshore accounts demonstrated sophisticated money-laundering techniques.

He ordered Harris to pay $6,588,949.50 in restitution and an additional $20,324,560 in fines for the crimes in the 1990s.

OTHER ALLEGATIONS

Allegations that Harris bilked clients out of millions of dollars never came up at the trial or in the charges filed against him in the case.

But his reputation as a high flyer -- with strictly champagne and Jaguar tastes -- and as a crusader for the use of tax havens hung over the sentencing hearing.

Seated at the back of the court was David Marchant, editor of the Miami-based Offshore Alert, who was once sued for $30 million by Harris over a 1998 article in the newsletter that alleged Harris was running ''one of the biggest offshore scams of all times.'' Harris lost the lawsuit; he never even appeared in Miami for the proceedings, and questions over his operations crescendoed.

Harris, who attended court in prison garb and manacles, declined to speak at his sentencing hearing, just as he had kept silent throughout his trial. He left the courtroom quickly, as his mother and father stood in silence.

The 38-year-old Harris showed early promise, graduating from North Carolina Wesleyan College at 18 and earning an MBA from Columbia University at 20. He worked as an accountant in Miami, was once awarded the keys to the city by Miami Beach and even served as Florida spokesman for the brief 1988 presidential bid of Alexander Haig, former secretary of state in the Reagan administration.

PROMISE FALTERED

But even as his financial empire soared -- he once claimed to manage over $1 billion for clients in offshore companies and accounts -- his promise faltered. In 1989, claiming he was persecuted by the IRS, Harris fled to Panama, the principal tax haven in Latin America.

By 2002, Harris was on the move again, settling in Nicaragua, where the government detained him last June and expelled him from the country.

Fernandez won one concession. After announcing that he would be handling the appeal, the judge said he would recommend that Harris be allowed to remain in a nearby prison to be close to his attorneys.

Source: Miami Herald