Score:   1
Docket Number:   WD-AR  3:18-cr-30007
Case Name:   USA v. DePriest
  Press Releases:
Fort Smith, AR – Duane (DAK) Kees, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced today that Eric De Priest, age 47, of Marshall, Arkansas, was sentenced Monday to serve 24 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a total of $284,736.30 in restitution for his conviction on one felony count of Willful Failure to Pay Over Payroll Taxes. The Honorable P.K. Holmes III presided over the sentencing hearing in the United States District Court in Fort Smith.

According to court records, Eric De Priest (De Priest) is the co-owner of ZacBac Apparel LLC (ZacBac), a limited liability company formed in Arkansas in 2002.  ZacBac’s principal place of business is in Marshall, Arkansas. ZacBac manufactures clothing for government agencies such as the United States Postal Service and the military.

The Internal Revenue Code requires employers to pay to the United States of America the employer’s fair share of Federal Insurance Contribution Act taxes, also called FICA and social security taxes, and Medicare taxes owing on wages paid to employees. The Internal Revenue Code also requires employers to withhold from wages of their employees the employees’ share of FICA taxes, Medicare and social security taxes, and income taxes (collectively, “payroll taxes”), to  account for payroll taxes, and pay the withheld amounts of payroll taxes over to the United States of America.

Since 2005, De Priest exercised control over ZacBac’s financial transactions including, but not limited to, directing payments to creditors, authorizing payroll and submitting Federal Tax Deposits, and signing and filing payroll tax returns.  Specifically, for multiple consecutive quarters from March 2009 through and including December 31, 2015, De Priest signed each of ZacBac’s Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Returns (known as a “Form 941”) as the “owner;” meaning, De Priest was the person responsible for collecting, truthfully accounting for, and submitting   ZacBac’s payroll taxes to the United States.

Between July 2012 and September 2015, ZacBac withheld over $293,000.00 in trust fund taxes from employees’ wages and failed to pay over to the United States $284,736.30 of this amount.  During this same time period, ZacBac diverted more than $247,000 of the trust fund taxes collected from employees’ wages.

Specifically, during the fourth quarter of 2014 that ended December 31, 2014, De Priest deducted and collected from the total taxable wages of ZacBac employees’ federal income taxes and Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes in the sum of $24,710.25 that he did not then pay into the Treasury of the United States.

De Priest was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2018 and entered a guilty plea in February 2019. 

The investigation was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigations Division. Assistant United States Attorney Kyra Jenner prosecuted the case for the United States.

Docket (0 Docs):   https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AkzZQqTL3m-zC_PQ0z19s4pn1NUgk8N0WI5J5vOnC-s
  Last Updated: 2023-12-17 11:17:36 UTC
Description: The fiscal year of the data file obtained from the AOUSC
Format: YYYY

Description: The code of the federal judicial circuit where the case was located
Format: A2

Description: The code of the federal judicial district where the case was located
Format: A2

Description: The code of the district office where the case was located
Format: A2

Description: Docket number assigned by the district to the case
Format: A7

Description: A unique number assigned to each defendant in a case which cannot be modified by the court
Format: A3

Description: A unique number assigned to each defendant in a case which can be modified by the court
Format: A3

Description: A sequential number indicating whether a case is an original proceeding or a reopen
Format: N5

Description: Case type associated with the current defendant record
Format: A2

Description: A concatenation of district, office, docket number, case type, defendant number, and reopen sequence number
Format: A18

Description: A concatenation of district, office, docket number, case type, and reopen sequence number
Format: A15

Description: The status of the defendant as assigned by the AOUSC
Format: A2

Description: A code indicating the fugitive status of a defendant
Format: A1

Description: The date upon which a defendant became a fugitive
Format: YYYYMMDD

Description: The date upon which a fugitive defendant was taken into custody
Format: YYYYMMDD

Description: The date when a case was first docketed in the district court
Format: YYYYMMDD

Description: The date upon which proceedings in a case commenced on charges pending in the district court where the defendant appeared, or the date of the defendant’s felony-waiver of indictment
Format: YYYYMMDD

Description: A code used to identify the nature of the proceeding
Format: N2

Description: The date when a defendant first appeared before a judicial officer in the district court where a charge was pending
Format: YYYYMMDD

Description: A code indicating the event by which a defendant appeared before a judicial officer in the district court where a charge was pending
Format: A2

Description: A code indicating the type of legal counsel assigned to a defendant
Format: N2

Description: The title and section of the U.S. Code applicable to the offense committed which carried the highest severity
Format: A20

Description: A code indicating the level of offense associated with FTITLE1
Format: N2

Description: The four digit AO offense code associated with FTITLE1
Format: A4

Description: The four digit D2 offense code associated with FTITLE1
Format: A4

Description: A code indicating the severity associated with FTITLE1
Format: A3

Description: The FIPS code used to indicate the county or parish where an offense was committed
Format: A5

Description: The date of the last action taken on the record
Format: YYYYMMDD

Description: The date upon which judicial proceedings before the court concluded
Format: YYYYMMDD

Description: The date upon which the final sentence is recorded on the docket
Format: YYYYMMDD

Description: The date upon which the case was closed
Format: YYYYMMDD

Description: The total fine imposed at sentencing for all offenses of which the defendant was convicted and a fine was imposed
Format: N8

Description: A count of defendants filed including inter-district transfers
Format: N1

Description: A count of defendants filed excluding inter-district transfers
Format: N1

Description: A count of original proceedings commenced
Format: N1

Description: A count of defendants filed whose proceedings commenced by reopen, remand, appeal, or retrial
Format: N1

Description: A count of defendants terminated including interdistrict transfers
Format: N1

Description: A count of defendants terminated excluding interdistrict transfers
Format: N1

Description: A count of original proceedings terminated
Format: N1

Description: A count of defendants terminated whose proceedings commenced by reopen, remand, appeal, or retrial
Format: N1

Description: A count of defendants pending as of the last day of the period including long term fugitives
Format: N1

Description: A count of defendants pending as of the last day of the period excluding long term fugitives
Format: N1

Description: The source from which the data were loaded into the AOUSC’s NewSTATS database
Format: A10

Description: A sequential number indicating the iteration of the defendant record
Format: N2

Description: The date the record was loaded into the AOUSC’s NewSTATS database
Format: YYYYMMDD

Description: Statistical year ID label on data file obtained from the AOUSC which represents termination year
Format: YYYY

Data imported from FJC Integrated Database
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