Date: Dec. 16, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Tallahassee, FL — Sedita Charles Cayson of Panacea, Florida, was found guilty by a federal judge of five counts of willfully failing to file his income tax returns during a five-year period, spanning tax years 2017-2021. The guilty verdict returned at the conclusion of a day-and-a-half bench trial, was announced by Jason R. Coody, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida. Trial testimony and evidence demonstrated that Cayson—a Florida real estate agent known as the “Land Man”— had been a serial non-filer of his income taxes for multiple years. Evidence showed that Cayson had a history of tax delinquencies with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and that he was assessed liens for his federal income tax delinquencies for years 2004-2007 and 2011-2013. Despite earning real estate sales commissions averaging over $150,000 per year, Cayson willfully failed to file his income tax returns for tax years 2017-2021. Further evidence indicated that beginning in 2017, Cayson instructed his real estate broker to split his commission checks into amounts that were less than $10,000, the majority of which Cayson cashed at the bank immediately upon receiving them. Sentencing is scheduled for February 24, 2025, at 2:00 p.m., at the United States Courthouse in Tallahassee before United States District Robert L. Hinkle. Cayson faces up to one year in federal prison and a $25,000 fine for each count, followed by a term of up to one year of supervised release. This conviction was the result of an investigation by the United States Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). Assistant United States Attorneys Harley Ferguson and Justin M. Keen prosecuted the case. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida is one IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
