Eston “Dusty” Melton III, a prominent lobbyist in South Florida, was sentenced this week to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to evading payment of more than $2 million in federal income taxes.
After his release, he is to be under supervision for three years.
Melton admitted in February to U.S. Department of Justice charges that he failed to pay more than $1.3 million in taxes between 2005 and 2014. By 2019, interest and penalties from that debt grew to about $1.7 million.
U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg sentenced Melton on Tuesday, ordering him to serve something of a middle ground between the 30 months in prison a prosecutor advocated for and the home confinement the defendant requested.
Under the sentencing, Melton must also repay $1.74 million in back taxes, plus interests and penalties, to the IRS.
Melton’s sentence is to begin Nov. 17.
In a statement to Rosenberg quoted by the Miami Herald, Melton, 71, described himself as a “broken, humiliated man” whose legacy had been “completely shattered.” For that, he said, “I have absolutely no one to blame but myself.”
A longtime figure at Miami-Dade County Hall and in Palm Beach County, Melton evaded IRS efforts to collect taxes in six ways, the Department of Justice said, including:
— Dissuading the IRS from seizing his home. Melton told agents he was trying to sell the property himself, but “then undermined his realtor’s efforts to make the sale.”
— Withdrawing $67,000 in cash from his lobbying business, Global Projects Inc., and giving it to his wife, Mabelys, to deposit in her account.
— Having Mabelys open an ostensibly competing lobbying firm called Gryphon Partners to which Global Projects transferred clients. Melton continued to perform all the clients’ lobbying duties but reported almost no income after 2019, instead directing payments to his family members.
— Having Mabelys buy a new home in West Palm Beach, where she directed the closing agent not to include Melton on the deed because she “was buying the home with her own money. In fact,” prosecutors said, “approximately two-thirds of the cash to close was proceeds of Melton’s lobbying work at Global Projects and Gryphon Partners.”
— Having no checking account after December 2018.
— Transferring the titles of two cars and four life insurance policies valued at $51,000 to Mabelys.
Melton worked as a journalist for the paper before taking a job in 1982 with Steve Ross, an influential county lobbyist. Melton acquired Ross’ business after his death in 1995, when he registered Global Projects with the Florida Division of Corporations.
County records show his current clients include a subsidiary of REI Investment Group, American Medical Response, Avmed and Covanta Dade Renewable Energy, which is seeking to build a new trash incinerator in the county.
Past clients this year included Delta Dental Insurance, Farm Share, His House, Miami Children’s Museum, the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, University of Miami and Super Yellow Cab, among others.
In 2005, he stopped paying taxes for 10 straight years. He told the Herald he did it to “put my family obligations first, as a father and a husband.” His expenses also included alimony to an ex-wife, child support and college tuition costs for three kids and an adopted son whose legal fees he also covered in a 2016 drug smuggling case.
Melton told the Herald he made annual tax payments based on 30% of his income between 2014 and 2023. He said about 41% of the $1.36 million he got from selling his home in 2018 went to the IRS as well.
He initially pleaded not guilty to the charge, but told the Herald in January that he planned to switch to a guilty plea. He said he’d repaid more than half the back taxes he owed since selling his Coconut Grove home in April 2018.
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