Summary: An Orlando attorney was voluntarily disbarred after a conviction for tax evasion.
An Orlando attorney sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion has been voluntarily disbarred. The Florida Supreme Court order to disbar William Burton Pringle III, 56, came after he received his prison sentence, according to The Florida Bar.
Pringle was already suspended when the state Supreme Court granted his uncontested petition for disciplinary revocation. The disbarment will be effective immediately, according to the Florida Record. He must also pay roughly $1,647 in costs. The two-page order of disciplinary revocation by the state Supreme Court explains that Pringle can seek readmission after five years.
Florida law does not finalize court orders until the time to file a rehearing motion is past. Attorneys that are disbarred can reapply after a five year period but must go through an extensive process including a thorough background check and passing the bar exam again. Should Pringle file a motion, the effective date of his disbarment would not change.
Pringle was admitted to the state bar in 1988. He has no prior discipline with the state bar listed on his bar profile but a 1992 public reprimand and a year of probation for trust account violations was noted in his petition for disciplinary revocation.
Pringle was also sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to pay over $1.6 million by U.S. District Court Judge Roy B. Dalton, JR. in Orlando on February 1. The Internal Revenue Service said that he had avoided paying his taxes since 1996.
The former attorney was found guilty by a federal grand jury in November on one count of tax evasion. The Department of Justice statement read: “According to evidence presented at trial, Pringle owed more than $2.1 million in federal income taxes, interest, and penalties for the years 1996 and 1998-2010. Over a period of at least nine years, he avoided paying income taxes by hiding his substantial income and luxury assets from the IRS, and by engaging in tactics to stop the IRS from locating and seizing his assets to pay the taxes he owed.”
Do you think five years is too short of a time to be eligible for readmission to the state bar? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
To learn more disbarred Florida attorneys, read these articles:
- Florida Attorney Robert Ratiner Disbarred for Acting Childish
- Florida State Bar Wants Bernardo Roman III Permanently Disbarred
- Florida Attorney Disbarred after Practicing with Suspended License
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