Janet Goodson, president of Goodson Farms, was sentenced three months in prison for filing false tax returns from 2001 to 2004. Goodson Farms is one of Hillsborough County’s largest strawberry farms and the site of a popular produce market. Court records alleged that Goodson failed to report cash sales of peppers on tax returns.

Charged in Tampa’s federal court, Goodson faced up to 24 months in prison. She received a more lenient sentence because she cooperated in a federal investigation related to fraudulent federal crop insurance payments last year. In that case, prosecutors charged Goodson Farms, and D&K Farms in Plant City with lying about damaged crops to obtain more than $1 million in federal crop insurance payments.

No fines were assessed against Goodson because the farm was ordered to pay nearly $1.1 million in restitution after pleading guilty to crop insurance fraud last fall.

In that case, Goodson Farms was accused of obtaining crop insurance to cover its pepper crops between 2001 and 2004. The farm then claimed losses and received more than $1 million in federal crop insurance payments. The claimed pepper crops had actually been harvested and sold.

This case is a good example of the benefit of retaining a good federal criminal defense attorney as soon as one becomes aware of a federal investigation. Goodson, probably through defense counsel, was able to negotiate with prosecutors and investigators such that she assisted with the investigation and limited her period of incarceration.

Government Fraud

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Florida Criminal Law News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.