TALLAHASSEE – Orlando attorney William Burton Pringle III has been voluntarily disbarred following an April 19 Florida Supreme Court order after he was sentenced in February to three years in prison for tax evasion, according to a recent announcement by The Florida Bar.
The state Supreme Court granted Pringle' uncontested petition for a disciplinary revocation, tantamount to disbarment. Pringle was already suspended, which meant his disbarment was effective immediately, according to the court's two-page order, which required Pringle to pay almost $1,647 in costs.
The state bar announced the discipline and the Supreme Court's order on May 29.
The state Supreme Court issued its two-page order of disciplinary revocation with leave to seek readmission after five years.
In Florida, court orders are not final until after time expires to file a rehearing motion. Attorneys disbarred in the state may not re-apply for admission for five years and even then they must pass through an extensive process that includes a rigorous background check and retaking the bar exam.
Filing such a motion would not alter the effective date of the Pringle's disbarment.
Pringle, 56 when he filed his petition in February, was admitted to the bar in Florida on Nov. 2, 1988, according to his profile at the state bar website. No prior discipline before the state bar is listed on Pringle's state bar profile but his petition for a disciplinary revocation refers to a 1992 public reprimand and a year of probation for trust account violations.
On Feb. 1, a U.S. District Court Judge in Orlando also sentenced him to two years probation and ordered him to pay more than $1.6 million that the Internal Revenue Service said he'd avoided paying since 1996, according to a U.S. Justice Department press release.
A federal grand jury found Pringle guilty in November of one count of tax evasion, according to his petition for a disciplinary revocation and this statement from the DOJ: "According to evidence presented at trial, Pringle owed more than $2.1 million in federal income taxes, interest, and penalties for the years 1996 and 1998-2010."