The Palm Beach owner of a Broward towing company got caught being a $130,000 tax cheat

A Boca Raton man used the cash business of his Lauderdale Lakes towing company to pay $132,199 less in federal income taxes over three years.

For his economic shenanigans, 60-year-old Craig Goldstein got sentenced to 15 months in federal prison last month. Goldstein’s towing company, West Way Towing, is still in business at 3681 W. Oakland Park Blvd., officially now “Westway Towing” in state records.

Goldstein’s admission of facts with his guilty plea says he engaged in three different schemes to hide his income from the Internal Revenue Service for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016.

READ MORE: Former Lauderdale Lakes towing company owner accused of a $130,000 tax evasion

▪ For four years, 2013 through 2017, Goldstein got kickbacks for referring people whose vehicles West Way towed from accidents to certain attorneys and chiropractors. Those attorneys and chiropractors, Goldstein’s guilty plea said, “were involved in fraudulent activities regarding the Florida Personal Injury Protection Program.”

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▪ West Way held cash-only, public auctions of vehicles that hadn’t been claimed after 35 days at which they were allowed to sale vehicles for “lien fees” — reasonable towing and storage costs, as well as a reasonable sale cost. Anything above that were to be deposited with the clerk of the circuit court if the owner or lienholder wasn’t present.

From 2015 through 2017, when a sale at these auctions went for more than the lien fees, the sales price was recorded as being the same as the lien fees.

▪ From about 2013 through 2017, when a car owner paid the lien fees to get their vehicle back from West Way, sometimes, Goldstein would “remove the cash from the safe prior to the reporting of the transaction on the books and records of West Way.”

IRS Criminal Investigations out of Miami investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey N. Kaplan and Paul Schwartz handled the prosecution.