PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (CBS12) — A Palm Beach Gardens man will spend more than four years behind bars for defrauding the IRS of more than $20 million in taxes while collecting luxury goods, including 27 Ferraris.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday that Matthew Brown was sentenced to 50 months in prison for tax fraud. Brown — who owned and operated Elite Payroll — provided payroll services to small businesses in and around St. Lucie, Martin, and Palm Beach counties.
Elite Payroll was hired by its clients to collect and pay over the Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes withheld from clients’ employees’ wages and to pay over those funds to the IRS each quarter. Instead, the DOJ said Brown’s company failed to pay taxes withheld from clients’ employees’ wages and filed false tax returns…