Sarasota Restaurant Owner Pleads Guilty To Tax Charges: U.S. DOJ

SARASOTA, FL — A Sarasota restaurant owner pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to provide information to the IRS, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Karl Knocker faces up to three years in federal prison. A sentencing date hasn’t been set.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Knocker owns Boatyard Waterfront Bar and Grill, which is located at 1500 Stickney Point Road.

• Also Read: Sarasota Restaurant Owner Defrauded IRS

As early as August 2013, he and his partner and co-owner of the restaurant, Madeline Nikolson, began defrauding the IRS by removing records of daily cash sales from their register, leaving only records of credit card sales, the DOJ said.

The owners kept the true record of their sales and income secret and didn’t disclose it to the IRS, as required by the Internal Revenue Code and regulations.

The two restaurant owners provided this falsified record of sales income to tax preparers who prepared both their personal income tax returns and their corporate tax returns for tax years 2016, 2017 and 2018, the agency said.

They falsified and removed any reference to about $726,000 in sales income from their corporate and personal tax returns for those tax years, resulting in more than $100,000 of taxes due and owing on the unreported income.

Nikolson previously pleaded guilty for her role in this case. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 1.