Legal woes for restaurant owner under tax investigation

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The owner of a landmark seafood restaurant in the Florida Panhandle who is the target of a federal tax fraud investigation is facing new felony drunken driving charges and what may become a challenging effort to renew his liquor license later this summer.

The new legal problems also may complicate efforts by David Biegler, 49, co-owner of the Hurricane Oyster Bar and Grill in Santa Rosa Beach, to pay the IRS and Justice Department over what the government said he owes.

The latest arrest means Biegler is simultaneously fighting separate drunken driving cases against him in two states.

Biegler was arrested June 20 by sheriff’s deputies in Walton County after reports he drove his 2019 Dodge pickup into a ditch. Biegler pleaded not guilty Monday, and a pretrial hearing was tentatively set for Sept. 24. Biegler separately faces a pending misdemeanor drunken driving charge in Buncombe County, North Carolina, after his arrest there last year, a court official confirmed.

Biegler and his estranged wife, Kellie, are accused of failing to pay payroll and other taxes on more than $4 million in wages for hundreds of employees and failing to file personal or corporate income tax returns for more than 10 years.

The senior IRS criminal agent on the case, Scott Schneider, said he could not comment because the investigation was continuing. The Bieglers have not been formally charged with any federal crime, Complex tax investigations can take months or even years to unravel.

Kellie Biegler said in an interview Thursday that her estranged husband was making payments to the IRS and “has people working on it.” She said she was not involved in any crimes and said federal officials told her she was not being investigated.

The federal government’s...