FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The manager of a now shuttered Broward County car dealership was arrested Thursday after failing to remit more than $120,000 in sales tax payments to the state of Florida’s Department of Revenue, authorities said.
Recommended Videos
According to a probable cause affidavit filed on Jan. 14, Sebastian Espinosa, 29, was the manager of the Auto Beast car dealership, located at 790 NW First St. in Fort Lauderdale.
Investigators said that between September 2020 and December 2021, Espinosa failed to remit $122,711.33 in sales tax to the state.
According to the affidavit, Espinosa signed the company’s Florida Business Tax Application, acknowledging that he understood that it was a criminal offense to “fail or refuse to register; not timely file a tax return or report; underreport a tax, surcharge or fee on a return or report filed; fail or refuse to collect a required tax, surcharge or fee; not remit a collected tax, surcharge or fee; and make a worthless check, draft, debit card payment, or electronic funds transfer payment to the Department.”
The affidavit states that Espinosa “did not file and use tax returns on behalf of Auto Beast, LLC during the periods of February 2021 through December 2021.”
Investigators said specialists with the Department of Revenue made contact numerous times with representatives from the car dealership to resolve the company’s sales tax delinquencies, including Espinosa, who “acknowledged on several occasions that he was aware the returns had not been filed and the payments had not been remitted.”
According to the affidavit, because Espinosa failed to remit the sales tax payments due to state during the periods of September 2020, and February 2021 to December 2021, although he had been contacted numerous times to do so, he was arrested Thursday on a charge of failing to remit over $100,000 in sales taxes.
As of Friday, he was being held at the Broward County Main Jail on a $10,000 bond.