A Florida businessman has been sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to forfeit over $5.5 million, along with various properties and cash. Additionally, he must pay more than $55 million in restitution following his involvement in a scheme involving wire fraud, defrauding the United States, and violating workplace safety standards leading to an employee's death. The sentencing took place on February 20 after a joint investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Manual Domingos Pita of Wesley Chapel admitted guilt to these charges on July 9, 2024. Court documents reveal that Pita owned Domingos 54 Construction, a subcontracting company for wood framing in new home construction. This business served as a shell company through which Pita employed workers, including undocumented immigrants, without securing necessary workers' compensation insurance by falsifying application details regarding the number of employees covered.
From 2018 to 2022, Pita avoided paying federal employment taxes on wages earned by these workers. Consequently, several insurance companies lost over $22.7 million in premiums due to misrepresentation of worker numbers. Additionally, Pita failed to remit over $33.7 million in federal employment taxes to the IRS.
Between February and July 2019, Domingos 54 received six citations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for not providing fall protection for workers. Despite these citations, Pita continued neglecting OSHA regulations. In March 2020, he assigned workers to install roof sheeting without necessary fall-protection gear during windy conditions, resulting in one worker falling off the roof and dying from injuries.
The investigation involved multiple agencies including the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, ICE Tampa, Florida Department of Financial Services’ Bureau of Insurance Fraud-Criminal Investigations, and the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay L. Hoffer for the Middle District of Florida and Senior Trial Attorney Banumathi Rangarajan from the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s Environmental Crimes Section.
