Linda Davis, the head honcho at Majestic Seals & Stripes, Inc., is looking at four years in a federal lockup after failing to toss the taxman his due, specifically half a million plus in payroll taxes that she kept out of Uncle Sam's pockets. By all accounts, the pavement maintenance firm she ran in Clearwater is now associated with her less-than-legal maneuvers concerning employment taxes. The monies, which should've been passed on to the IRS, got a new destination—her wallet.
As per the papers flying out of the courthouse, from mid-2016 through the end of 2021, Davis played keep-away with $557,249.62 that belonged to the tax authorities, money that came off the top of what her workers earned it's theirs and when they got their paycheck, they thought they were square with the government but not so much, while also ducking out on the employer's share of payroll taxes. On top of that, the businesswoman put in for a PPP loan rocking a phony IRS form and landed a sweet $161,800, as cited by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
What's clear is that Davis entered the guilty plea arena back on November 9 of last year, and come sentencing time, U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber decided her play deserved a four-year stretch and a bill for $719,049.62, set for IRS restitution. Davis, over a period reaching back almost five years, lined her pockets with payroll taxes that never saw the light of the IRS's day; her sentencing is a shot across the bow to would-be tax dodgers.
Ron Loecker, the IRS-CI Special Agent running the Tampa show, didn't mince words, effectively saying employers hold a trust sacred—that employees' hard-earned dough, garnished fair and square, goes to its rightful governmental resting place not anywhere else that's shady, "When you work somewhere, you trust that your employer will do the right thing," Loecker drove the point home, and further adding, "For an employer to take advantage of their employees for their own personal gain in such a blatantly criminal way is downright shameful," in a statement obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
