Owner of Artificial Turf Company Receives 15-Month Prison Sentence for Tax Evasion Involving $9 Million in Unreported Business Income

11 Sep, 2023

Owner of Artificial Turf Company Receives 15-Month Prison Sentence for Tax Evasion Involving $9 Million in Unreported Business Income

Newport Beach-based Artificial Turf Company Owner Gets 15-Month Prison Term for Tax Evasion Involving Nearly $9 Million in Unreported Income

Craig Steven Voyton, aged 56 and a resident of San Pedro, has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for his involvement in tax evasion amounting to almost $9 million in undisclosed income generated by his artificial turf business. United States District Judge John W. Holcomb handed down the sentence and also ordered Voyton to pay a fine of $50,000.

Voyton pleaded guilty on July 7 to one count of tax evasion. He owns and operates Smart Grass LLC, a company specializing in artificial turf installations for residential and commercial customers in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Between 2016 and 2020, Smart Grass annually earned over $1.5 million in gross income from its business activities. Voyton, in an attempt to avoid paying taxes on this income, engaged in tactics to conceal it from the IRS. One method involved Voyton sending customers federal tax forms containing false identification details. This way, when customers reported their payments to Voyton and Smart Grass to the IRS, they wouldn't be linked directly to him or his company for tax purposes.

In 2020, Voyton emailed fraudulent IRS Form W-9s with fictitious identities and false information to Los Angeles and Beverly Hills customers. He had also used similar deceptive IRS Forms W-9 in the tax years 2016 through 2019. Additionally, Voyton provided a false IRS Form W-9 to a school in Irvine in August 2016.

During this period of tax evasion, Voyton made transfers exceeding $63,000 to the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange from a Smart Grass bank account. He also utilized more than $500,000 in company funds for real estate purchases in Nevada and Mexico.

In total, Voyton failed to report approximately $8,926,333 in income, resulting in the IRS being unable to assess roughly $946,479 in federal income taxes for the tax years 2016 through 2020.

Before the sentencing hearing, Voyton settled his outstanding taxes with the IRS, including interest, and paid an additional 75% fraud penalty.

Prosecutors noted in a sentencing memorandum, "[Voyton] was a business owner who operated a business in Orange and Los Angeles counties. He generated over a million dollars in business income each year but failed to report a single cent of it to the IRS.