NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) — New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, acting tax commissioner Nonie Manion and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced last week that a group of defendants operating a for-profit school will pay $4.3 million after allegations of overcharging the state for certain services and failing to pay millions in personal and corporate income tax.
The defendants in the case were K3 Learning Inc. (formerly known as Metropolitan Preschools Inc.) and its president and owner Michael C. Koffler, together with his sons, Brian and Daniel Koffler, and his special education preschool, Sunshine Development School (SDS).
“We won’t allow special education programs to be exploited for personal financial gain," Schneiderman said . "These defendants used their programs as a way to defraud the government and cheat on their taxes—sticking law-abiding New Yorkers with the bill in the process.”
According to the state, Michael Koffler created a complicated leasing agreement whose main goal was to inflate claims for rent reimbursement to the state.
“The bottom line is that this family trio launched a scheme to under-report millions of dollars in income, fleecing New York state and its honest taxpayers,” said NYS acting tax commissioner Nonie Manion.