Former Dolphins VP sues team

Katz, 63, says he’s owed pension, other benefits in federal court

The season’s end for the Miami Dolphins just got more bitter.

A former accountant who says he served as vice president of the football team sued the Dolphins in federal court Thursday, claiming the organization incorrectly classified him as a contract worker — not an employee — and owes him unpaid benefits.

Ronald Katz, 63, of Boca Raton, says he worked for the Dolphins from 2008 to 2016 and made $600,000 a year, or $50,000 a month. Now he wants what he says is due to any other regular full-time Dolphins employee: a pension, benefits and health insurance.

A spokesman for the Dolphins declined to comment about the lawsuit. The Dolphins have yet to file a response in court.

Katz says he operated like a full-time worker. The Dolphins gave him a company credit card, an office and two email addresses, he says.

Katz says he signed checks for them, analyzed their budget and cash flows, went to quarterly owners’ meetings, negotiated contracts and settlement reports, met with the Miami Dade County Budget Committee and even helped refinance the stadium’s debt.

Katz, a certified public accountant, says he even gave up his license to practice that profession while employed by the football team because of the demands the organization placed on his time.

The lawsuit doesn’t say whether Katz, who had access to the Dolphins’ finances, ever raised the issue with team management while employed there.

“I don’t see this as a lawsuit that is going to go away quickly,” said Javier Basnuevo, an employment and labor attorney in Miami.

Basnuevo said Katz will have to prove that the Dolphins controlled the “manner and means” of Katz’s work if he’s to convince a jury that the Dolphins really treated him like a full-time employee.

But Katz has a criminal history of lying to the IRS. It’s not clear how that history will complicate his civil case.

After being convicted for tax fraud in 2016, Katz served nine months in federal prison for lying to the IRS about 1.2 million dollars in income. His time in prison coincides with the end of his employment for the Dolphins.

According to federal court records, he helped a tax lawyer at a major law firm in New York conceal over $3 million of income from the IRS.

As part of his sentence, Katz had to pay the IRS over $700,000 in restitution, court records show.

“As tax professionals and partners at professional firms, both Harold Levine and Ronald Katz knew better,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at the time.

“But as alleged, they engaged in a multiyear scheme to divert and evade taxes on millions of dollars of fee income.”