Code Blue for Ambulance Co.’s Former Owner Who Gets 6 Years For Tax Evasion

"Despite being obligated by law to withhold taxes from his employees' paychecks and turn them over to the IRS in a timely fashion, Jones refused to do so, all the while amassing a portfolio of luxurious Caribbean real estate and an enviable collection of classic cars for himself," prosecutors said in the memo.

For years, Jones thwarted the IRS' efforts to collect his individual taxes and employee withholdings, sometimes by giving the agency fraudulent documents on which he had forged the signatures of people he knew, prosecutors said. Jones also failed to disclose his assets, which included high-value classic cars and five luxury apartments on St. Maarten, prosecutors said. Overall, he caused a tax loss of nearly $1.5 million, prosecutors said.

At trial, Jones lied on the stand about his ownership of the Caribbean apartments, telling "an epic tale of a dead man being the true owner" and claiming he only took care of the properties "out of the goodness of his heart," prosecutors said.

"Mr. Jones' counsel asserts that his behavior demonstrates he lives in a world populated largely by his own beliefs that have little bearing on reality."