Some fully employed people have discovered that Social Security contributions have been “$0” in recent years, so the Stuart man and his wife have luxuriously nourished in a 7,700-square-foot, three-bedroom, eight-bathroom home with a small dock and cove.
Missing money and homes connect through Matthew Brown and his $22.4 million tax fraud.
Brown, 51, is soon transferred from the home to federal prison after being sentenced to 50 months in prison and two years of supervised release in Fort Pierce Federal Court. He was also fined $200,000 and ordered to pay $22,401,585 in reparations.
Brown pleaded guilty to failing to pay with trust fund tax considerations and assisting in filing false tax returns and filing crimes committed through Matthew Brown & Associates, who conducted business as an elite salary solution. Elite Payroll handled payroll capabilities, employee benefits and tax services for several companies from Miami-Dade to St. Lucie County.
These features included payroll tax payments.
How tax fraud works
Since 2014, the Justice Department said Brown had committed a very simple tax fraud against his business clients. He told them how much they owe the taxes and they paid him in full. He then underestimated his employment tax obligations against the IRS. Brown kept the difference.
Brown’s approval of facts said it did this to the Miami Private Security Company in the Business Quarter, which ended June 30, 2021. He made this into several companies over eight years or 32 quarters.
“On multiple occasions, the IRS sent Brown and realized that EPS clients had detected underreports for a particular quarter,” his admission said. “Brown has contacted the IRS and EPS clients who claim that underreporting was the result of elite pay errors, offering to pay the balance and interest to pay that quarter.
Instead of paying payroll taxes, Brown bought the house in 2016 with a fleet of cars, including $1.2 million (current market value of county real estate records: $3.7 million), commercial real estate, a fleet of cars, including Valhalla 55 Sport Yacht, Falcon 50 Jet, Porsche, Rolls-Royce and 27 Ferraris.
This is the list of companies included in Brown’s compensation and the unpaid employment tax that he has in his pocket.
▪Gruber Saks Construction, Miami, $695,118.
▪Davis Brothers, LLC, $2,113,984
▪Factory Direct Supply WPB, LLC, $1,992,692
▪ Haines Security Services in Miami, $1,509,015
▪ Palm City’s VM Ironwork and Structural Steel Corporation, $648,811
Three companies partially owned by Brown
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▪PalmCity’s Propane Services, Inc., $1,297,823
▪ACCare Heat and Air, Inc., $382,315
▪Matthew Brown & Associates, Inc., $13,761,827
One employee of Brown’s company sent a victim’s impact email to the court prior to Brown’s ruling.
“One day, my colleague urged me to check my Social Security records. Due to the shock, the contribution of the SSA over the past three years was listed as $0. It took several months during the COVID closure to fix this despite full-time employment. After that, I encouraged others to review their records.
This was investigated by an IRS criminal investigation and charged by US lawyer Michael Porter and trial lawyer Andrew Asensio.
