WASHINGTON – A Florida construction business owner was sentenced on Feb. 20 to four years in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $5.5 million after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, defrauding the U.S. government, and willfully violating workplace safety standards that led to an employee’s death.
Manual Domingos Pita, of Wesley Chapel, operated Domingos 54 Construction, a shell company that employed undocumented workers for residential framing jobs. Between 2018 and 2022, Pita falsified workers’ compensation insurance applications to hide the number of employees, avoiding $22.7 million in premiums. He also failed to pay over $33.7 million in federal employment taxes.
Despite repeated safety violations cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Pita continued to neglect workplace protections. In March 2020, a worker assigned to install roofing in high winds without fall protection was blown off and fatally injured.
The case was investigated by the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, ICE Tampa, and other federal and state agencies. Pita must also pay over $55 million in restitution.