The founder of the now-defunct Latitude 360 entertainment complex has been indicted on 17 counts of failing to pay more than $1 million in payroll taxes that he withheld from employees' paychecks.
Brent Brown operated Latitude 360 — including a bowling alley, theater and bars — off Philips Highway near the Avenues Mall. The business began in Jacksonville and also opened in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Albany, N.Y. It closed in 2016 after its landlord sued for almost $6 million in past rent and other charges.
The lawsuit was part of a string of issues that Brown and his business faced, according to WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.
By December 2014, 60 lawsuits had been filed against Latitude 360. In early 2017 the Pittsburgh operation had to make a last-minute $46,857 payment of delinquent county beverage taxes as officials threatened to padlock the business. That came after the Indianapolis location shut down when the Indiana Department of Revenue plastered it with signs suggesting it had failed to turn over sales taxes, according to the Indianapolis Star.
At the same time, the IRS filed three liens totaling almost a half-million dollars against Latitude 360 and its various entities, while the Florida Department of Revenue filed a lien for $147,390 claiming unpaid sales and use taxes, the Times-Union reported.
In the latest case, federal prosecutors say Brown filed quarterly tax returns for the four businesses and withheld taxes from employees' paychecks along with FICA taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. But he never paid the full amount owed to the IRS, according to the newly unsealed indictment.
If convicted, Brown faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each of the 17 counts, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
