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Couple Accused Of Fraud

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By TODD LESKANIC, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 29, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - A few years ago, Phyllis Blankenship was looking for someone to handle the payroll for her site development company, BRW Contracting.

She settled on Professional Payroll Plus.

"I looked in the phone book, and there they were," Blankenship said Monday. "And I was like, 'Wow. Right across the street.' So I went over and talked to them and came back and talked to my comptroller and we said, OK. It was convenient, and they were very personable type people."

The people Blankenship spoke of, PPP owners Elizabeth and Ronald Mascitti, are now in the county jail, charged with stealing more than $360,000 from BRW. Investigators with the Florida Department of Financial Services' fraud division arrested the couple Monday at their Genoa Lane home.

Elizabeth Mascitti, 52, and Ronald Mascitti, 42, are each charged with grand theft, communications fraud, conspiracy and organized fraud. Both are in the Land O' Lakes Jail, with bail set at $2 million each.

Companies such as PPP are paid to do the bookkeeping associated with payroll. That means cutting paychecks and sending various withholdings - for example, taxes and worker's compensation insurance premiums - to the Internal Revenue Service and insurance providers.

Authorities say that from Sept. 2006 through April 2007, the Mascittis were cutting paychecks to BRW employees but weren't sending tax withholdings to the IRS or worker's compensation premiums to BRW's provider.

"They were taking the money and spending it on themselves," said Lt. John Womer of the Department of Financial Services.
Professional Payroll Plus, which had an office at 6739 Land O' Lakes Blvd., incorporated in 2002, but state records now list the company as inactive. The Mascittis incorporated under the name Florida HR Solutions last year. Records show that corporation is active, but a phone number listed on the company's Web site has been disconnected.

According to an arrest report, Elizabeth Mascitti met with Blankenship in April and told her that Professional Payroll hadn't been paying federal wage withholding taxes and other required payments. Mascitti told Blankenship the theft had been going on for about seven months, the report states.
Professional Payroll Plus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection the following month. In that filing, the Mascittis list nearly $1.5 million in debt Professional Payroll owed to various businesses.

The charges the Mascittis were arrested on Monday could just be the beginning. Five other businesses in Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties have filed lawsuits against Professional Payroll Plus, alleging the company failed to send on their withholdings as well.
Womer said investigators are continuing to work on the other cases.

BRW was fortunate, Blankenship said, to have had the money to pay the IRS and other entities immediately. Other businesses may not be so lucky.

Gloria Sutton, a spokeswoman for the IRS, advised any business owners victimized in a similar way to call the IRS immediately.

"We will work with those individuals on a case-by-case basis," she said.

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (352) 521-3156 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

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