A bar owner featured on Spike TV’s reality series “Bar Rescue” was sentenced to two to five years in prison for failing to pay sales tax on his business’ earnings, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said Thursday.
Michael Flore, 43, was also ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution.
According to Schuette, Flore pocketed more than $700,000 in sales tax from his bar The Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In all, he was charged with 120 counts of failure to file taxes over a 10-year period.
The Department of Treasury opened an investigation into the bar in 2013, after which the Department of Attorney General took up its own investigation. An auditor found that the bar racked up more than $9 million in taxable sales.
Flore originally pleaded guilty in July 2015. He was given an 11-month delayed sentence in order to pay toward his past due and current sales tax obligations. Flore did not complete the delayed sentencing requirements, leading to Wednesday’s sentence
The restitution include a 100 percent fraud penalty and interest.
“Bar Rescue” features bar consultant Jon Taffer helping bar owners whose establishments are teetering on the brink of financial ruin, providing them with advice and revamps to turn their businesses around.
Watch a clip from a Season 4 episode of “Bar Rescue” featuring Flore below.