At one time he claimed that his firm, The Harris Organisation, had funds under management of $1 billion and $35 million in capital, but the organization collapsed after being exposed as fraudulent in OffshoreAlert in 1998.
He qualified as a certified public accountant in the United States but quickly left the Florida firm he joined.
[1] In March 1998, Jim Bennett, an offshore asset protection attorney, asked David Marchant, editor of the OffshoreAlert newsletter, to investigate Harris.
Marshals who were waiting for him and flown to Miami to face charges of avoiding $6.2 million of excise tax along with alleged co-conspirators Aurelio and Joseph Vigna who the U.S. government argued were involved in the illegal import into the United States of the ozone-depleting refrigerant chemical Freon.
[7] In 2004, he was convicted of money laundering and tax evasion,[9] sentenced to 17 years in jail,[10] and ordered to pay a fine of $27 million which is believed never to have been collected.
IRS examination of Harris's records after the trial led to the prosecution of a number of Americans for tax evasion.