Former Palm Beach resident Maria “Mia” Matthews — the ex-wife of former Palm House hotel developer and convicted felon Robert “Bob” V. Matthews — has been sentenced in Connecticut for federal tax evasion to a year’s probation and a $6,000 fine.
She had pleaded guilty in 2019 after being charged in 2018 with a single count of tax evasion. Mia Mathews, 58, and her then-husband evaded at least $2.75 million in taxes, penalties and interest for the years 2005 and 2007, according to a pre-sentence report cited by prosecutors.
Her sentencing came as Bob Matthews, 67, serves a 65-month sentence in a federal Pensacola prison after pleading guilty to crimes, including tax evasion, in a fraud case related to his failed efforts to renovate and reopen the Palm House property at 160 Royal Palm Way in Palm Beach.
Judge Victor A. Bolden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, who has overseen several Palm House-related criminal cases, delivered Mia Matthews’ sentence.
After being arrested and charged in 2018, Bob Matthews pleaded guilty in 2019 to one felony count each of “conspiracy, money laundering and tax evasion offenses related to multiple schemes to defraud foreign investors and financial institutions,” according to a government statement released when he entered his plea agreement.
The tax-evasion charge was the only one Mia Matthews faced in the case. The government’s sentencing memorandum had requested the court sentence her “on the record as a whole” and cited a “guideline imprisonment range” of 30 to 37 months.
In her sentencing memo to the court, Mia Matthews’ legal team instead argued she should receive “a non-custodial sentence of time served.” Her memo cited “her extraordinary rehabilitation in the face of significant collateral consequences, the complete absence of any risk of recidivism, and the fact that she has already served what is the equivalent of nearly seven years of probation through her time on pretrial release.”
The issue of restitution of any money owed to the IRS remains open. The 2019 plea deals listed the amount of restitution as about $2.885 million. Bolden’s sentencing directive said a restitution order is due by Sept. 3 “or as needed.”
Mia Matthews is “looking forward to moving on with my life”
Following her sentencing June 5 in New Haven, Mia Mathews’ attorney released a statement from her to the Palm Beach Daily News.
“After seven years, I am grateful to be one step closer to having this difficult chapter behind me and looking forward to moving on with my life,” she said.
The renovation of the Palm House was finally completed late last year, when the hotel opened under the owner that bought the property about six years ago. When it welcomed guests for Thanksgiving weekend, the hotel building had been shuttered for 17 years, having been mired in a tangle of code violations, SEC investigations, a foreclosure action, bankruptcy and criminal charges.
As the defacto owner of the hotel property, prosecutors said, Bob Matthews masterminded a scheme in which he diverted millions of dollars from Palm House investors and used the money instead for his and his then-wife’s personal expenses. He was sentenced in July 2023 and reported to prison a few months later.
Like her ex-husband, Mia Matthews had remained free on bond after her arraignment.
Hers was the last ongoing case involving criminal cases linked to the Palm House’s former ownership. Two other defendants in the case pleaded guilty to lesser charges and received probation and fines in 2023, while charges against another man were dropped and his record expunged the same year after he completed a so-called pre-trial diversion program.
Charges in the case were brought by federal prosecutors in Connecticut because Bob Matthews had directed that money be wired between bank accounts there and in Florida. He and his ex-wife had homes in both states, including a since-sold oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach.
The cases against Bob Matthews and other defendants, prosecutors said, involved moving millions of dollars in investor funds — earmarked for the Palm House — through the bank accounts.
“The funds were used to pay Robert and Maria Matthews’ credit card debts, to purchase two properties located in Washington Depot (in) Connecticut and to assist in Robert Matthews’ purchase of a 151-foot yacht,” said a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s office when the two were charged with tax evasion.
The Connecticut allegations were investigated by the FBI and the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division.
In a pre-sentencing letter Mia Matthews wrote to Judge Bolden, she said she was “truly sorry for the role I played in helping my ex-husband to evade taxes. I was raised better. I should have known better. The pain that my ignorance caused my family is unimaginable.”
Mia Matthews wed Bob Matthews in 1997. She was a homemaker who also worked as an actress during her marriage, which ended in June 2023, court records show.
The government’s sentencing memo in Mia Matthews’ tax-evasion case was prepared on behalf of U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery for the District of Connecticut, who prosecuted the Palm House-related charges.
The government’s memo said Mia Matthews “was aware of these (tax) obligations and reminded of them regularly for a decade. At the time of her indictment the defendant had not filed a federal income tax return since 2009. This notwithstanding, the defendant and her husband moved money into various shell company accounts and eventually spent it on personal expenses, frustrating IRS tax liens on various properties in the process.”
Ex-husband Bob Matthews wrote he was solely responsible for paying couple’s taxes
Before his ex-wife’s sentencing hearing, Bob Matthews wrote a letter to the court in which he took sole responsibility for handling the couple’s finances.
“I controlled all financial matters including family and business. Before we were married, I required her to sign a pre-nuptial agreement that clearly demonstrated my complete control of our finances. The agreement included a clause about filing taxes stating that I, Robert Matthews, was responsible for paying all … taxes on the family income and my personal income. The agreement was clear that Mia had NO responsibility for paying the taxes,” Bob Matthews wrote to the court.
“Mia was focused on raising our two girls. I was focused on earning for the family. I never included her in any financial decisions. I put numerous papers in front of her to sign, including tax returns and other sophisticated business dealings that she knew nothing about, and because she trusted me, she signed them. She was never aware of any decisions that I made about tax returns.”
Bob Matthews initially entered a plea of not guilty after he was arrested in March 2018.
In his letter supporting his ex-wife, he wrote that he regretted not having accepted a plea deal earlier in the case, “which would have avoided Mia’s prosecution. I ended up pleading guilty after all, but destroyed the life of an innocent person in the process. This is unconscionable and something I deeply regret.”
Mia Matthews’ attorney, Brian Spears, also released a statement to the Palm Beach Daily News after her sentencing hearing.
“Mia Matthews is a courageous, inspirational woman who rose above a terrible relationship to become a strong, triumphant woman of great integrity who is a role model for all,” wrote Spears, a founding partner at Spears Manning Martini law firm in Southport, Connecticut.
Foreign investors put money into Palm House under old EB-5 program
Prosecutors alleged Bob Matthews’ fraud and money-laundering scheme ultimately bilked about 61 foreign investors in the Palm House out of more than $30 million. The investors were told their money would go to renovating the hotel as part of the government’s old EB-5 program. That program was designed to expedite immigration papers — so-called “green cards” — for foreign citizens who put money into U.S. construction projects that met certain conditions.
Bob Matthews bought the Palm House property in 2006 and soon announced renovation plans. But he lost the property in foreclosure in 2009, courthouse records show. In August 2013, he reacquired control of the property, although his ownership role was cloaked in public records, according to court records. Construction came to an abrupt halt in late 2014 and did not resume until after the property was sold in May 2019 for nearly $40 million in a sale sanctioned by a bankruptcy judge.
The buyer — an affiliate of the international hospitality and real estate firm London & Regional Properties — finished construction last year and held phased openings of the 79-room building in November and December.
The Palm House-related criminal cases simmered for years. People familiar with the cases blamed the delays, at least in part, on the coronavirus pandemic, which limited court proceedings. Many of the Palm House investors also were burdened by foreign travel restrictions United States because they were from China and Iran.
A spokesman for Avery’s office declined to comment about Mia Matthews’ tax case or her sentence.
dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com
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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Developer’s ex-wife gets probation in $2.88M tax evasion case linked to Palm Beach hotel
Reporting by Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
