Gabriela Inamagua, of Polk County, has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison for her role in a construction-related tax fraud conspiracy. Alongside the prison sentence, the court ordered Inamagua to pay restitution of $8,953,629.24 to two victim insurance companies and the IRS, following her guilty plea on October 4, 2023.
Key Points
- Inamagua owned and managed two “shell” construction companies, which were supposed to supply services and labor to construction contractors and subcontractors.
- Florida law required these companies to maintain adequate worker’s compensation insurance coverage.
- The companies had agreements to use workers, often undocumented aliens, who were actually under the supervision of contractors, not Inamagua’s companies.
- Inamagua and others cashed “payroll checks” from contractors to pay the workers and cover other expenses.
- In court documents, it was revealed that Inamagua misrepresented in insurance applications by stating her companies had a very limited payroll and few employees.
- She also transmitted false wire communications to contractors, falsely claiming full worker’s compensation coverage for her employees.
- In reality, her companies received and cashed checks exceeding $34 million from various contractors for these workers, significantly more than the reported payroll figures.
- This discrepancy led to inadequate insurance coverage for workers and financial losses for the insurance companies in terms of unpaid premiums.
- Inamagua’s actions also allowed her companies and the contractors to evade laws requiring the payment of state and federal payroll taxes.
- The total unpaid payroll taxes amounted to over $8.9 million.
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