Miami Contractor Sentenced to Prison for Employment Tax Fraud

WASHINGTON - Victor Manuel Amaya was sentenced to two years in prison for employment tax fraud, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. The court also ordered Amaya to pay $319,585 in restitution to the IRS.

According to court documents, from 2004 through 2007, Amaya, who owns Amaya Contracting and Stucco Inc. (ACS), filed fraudulent employment tax returns with the IRS and caused his company to underpay its federal employment taxes. To avoid having to report all of ACS's employment tax obligations, Amaya regularly cashed checks made out to ACS at a local check cashing store instead of depositing them into the company's account. Amaya then used the cash to pay his workers, which allowed him to report lower wages and lower employment taxes due on ACS's employment tax returns.

Amaya also used the cash for materials and personal expenses. Additionally, Amaya wrote ACS checks to fictitious companies and cashed them at local check cashing stores. Amaya also used this cash to pay his workers. Amaya failed to report to the IRS approximately $2,130,568 in wages, which resulted in a tax loss to the U.S. Treasury of approximately $319,585.

Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice, Tax Division, commended the IRS Special Agents who investigated this case and Tax Division Trial Attorney Matthew J. Mueller, who prosecuted the case.