Bryn Mawr realtor gets 18 months in prison for tax fraud

BRYAN WEINGARTEN Bryan Weingarten. Credit: WPRealty.com

A Bryn Mawr-based realtor was sentenced today to 18 months in prison committing tax fraud, federal prosecutors announced.

Bryan Weingarten, 53, of Ardmore, was also ordered to pay $30,000 in fines for filing false tax returns for tax years 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Weingarten was the CEO of WP Realty, through which he managed development of grocery store-anchored shopping centers.

From tax years 2006 to 2008, Weingarten added about $5.5 million in false business expenses to his tax returns to fraudulently reduce his federal income tax liability.

Weingarten pled guilty on April 10, 2013, to three counts of filing false tax returns.

Weingarten has already paid $2.4 million in restitution to the IRS.

Weingarten’s partner in Bryn Mawr-based WP Realty, Randall Stein, was charged separately.

Weingarten and Stein also created the entities Stein Realty Capital and Weingarten Capital, each of which had no employees and no operating costs, as a repository for the fees they were paid through WP Realty and as a fraudulent means to deduct personal expenses from their personal income tax returns.

Weingarten graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 with a B.S. in Finance.

IRS Criminal Investigations participated in this case.

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