A Florida man pleaded guilty today to not paying employment taxes withheld from his employees’ pay and to filing a false tax return.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Matthew Brown, of Martin County, owned and operated businesses in and around Martin County. One of these businesses was Elite Payroll, a payroll services company. Elite Payroll provided such services to small businesses in and around St. Lucie, Martin and Palm Beach Counties. This included withholding Social Security, Medicare and federal income taxes from the wages of its clients’ employees, and then paying over those funds to the IRS.
Between 2014 and 2022, Brown did not pay over $20 million in taxes withheld from clients of Elite Payroll and from other businesses he controlled. Brown charged his clients the full amount of their tax liabilities, filed false tax returns with the IRS substantially underreporting those liabilities, and pocketed the difference.
Instead of paying over the funds he held in trust for Elite Payroll’s clients, Brown purchased commercial and residential real estate, including his multi-million-dollar home, and high-value luxury assets including a Valhalla 55 Sport Yacht, a Falcon 50 Aircraft and a collection of cars including Ferraris, Porsches and Rolls Royces.
In total, Brown caused a tax loss to the IRS of over $22 million.
Brown will be sentenced at a later date. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida made the announcement.
IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.
Trial Attorneys Andrew Ascencio and Ashley Stein of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Porter for the Southern District of Florida are prosecuting the case. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Acosta assisted in the investigation.