Orono man gets 7 years in prison for hiding millions from the IRS

After getting out of federal prison for fraud in 2000, Scott Phillip Flynn didn't wait long to start his next criminal venture.

From 2005 to 2015, he hid about $50 million from the IRS through shell companies and filing false tax returns. His complex schemes involved attorneys from Australia and Costa Rica, according to federal prosecutors.

He made many of his millions off illegal stock deals, and for most of that time, he lived in luxury while telling the IRS he lived with his parents.

Flynn, 57, was sentenced to about seven years in prison and ordered to pay more than $5 million in restitution on Jan. 24 after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and one count of tax evasion.

"This was an elaborate tax scheme perpetrated by Mr. Flynn that spanned over a decade," said IRS special agent in charge Gabe Grchan.

Five years after getting out of prison, Flynn ran a company called Integritas that helped two Wisconsin companies go public. In exchange, Flynn received millions of dollars' worth of stock but never reported it as income, according to an indictment filed against him in 2016.

In total, prosecutors accused him of not paying about $15 million in income taxes.

In 2007, he used about $2.7 million from his ventures to buy a house in Orono. That same year, he reported income of $26,136. On his tax returns, he listed his home address as that of his parents' home in Plymouth, according to court records.

Flynn also illegally claimed millions of dollars in stock, according to the indictment. When he took companies public, he transferred portions of the stock to "nominees" or people who agreed to hold the stock. In reality, however, he owned and controlled about $13 million worth of stock.

He worked with Australian and Costa Rican attorneys to put stock in the names of residents of those countries. Flynn "carefully tracked, and always controlled" the brokerage and bank accounts of his nominees, the indictment said. When he needed money, he had the nominees sell the stock and transfer the proceeds to sham entities in the United States that he controlled.

Flynn's attorney, Earl Gray, did not respond to a request for comment.