Tampa contractor ordered to pay $55 million, serve 4 years in prison

A Pasco man who ran a wood-framing construction company for residential homes out of Tampa was recently sentenced for his role in a wide-ranging criminal case that included failing to pay more than $33.7 million in taxes.  

Manuel Domingos Pita, owner of Domingos 54 Construction, pleaded guilty to the charges last July. He was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and willful violation of a workplace standard that resulted in the death of his employee, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. As part of his sentencing, he is expected to forfeit more than $5.5 million, numerous real properties and cash to the United States and to pay over $55 million in restitution, the release states. 

While operating the construction company, Pita did not provide the proper amount of workers compensation insurance coverage for his employees by falsifying in worker’s compensation insurance applications the number of workers for which he sought coverage, authorities contended.  

Additionally, Pita did not pay any federal employment taxes on the wages that workers earned during the course of the scheme between 2018 and 2022. As a result, authorities say Pita caused several worker’s compensation insurance companies to sustain a loss of over $22.7 million in premiums that they could have charged had they been aware of the number of workers which they had been manipulated into covering with their policies. 

Pita, officials alleged, also failed to pay to the IRS over $33.7 million in federal employment taxes on those workers’ wages.

Between February and July 2019, investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued six citations to Domingos 54 for failure to provide fall protection to workers. After the citations, Pita continued to ignore OSHA requirements, officials said. In March 2020, Pita assigned a worker and three other carpenters to install sheathing on the roof of a residential home in windy conditions without providing the required fall-protection gear or ensuring its use. As a result, one of the workers was blown off the roof and died from his injuries, the DOJ states. By 2023, Pita owed almost half a million dollars in OSHA fines.

“The defendant in this case engaged in a deliberate scheme to defraud insurance companies, the government and evade taxes, resulting in huge losses to the U.S. Treasury, and to personally enrich himself,” says Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Sara C. Sweeney in the statement. “In addition, flagrant violations of OSHA safety standards put workers at unacceptable risk, ultimately resulting in the death of an employee. My office is committed to federally prosecuting and holding accountable anyone who violates these laws and regulations.”