Springfield, Missouri, Man Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud and Failure to Pay Employment Taxes Associated with his Time Share Exit Businesses

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A Springfield, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today for his commission of a fraud scheme and his failure to pay employment taxes that stemmed from his operation and ownership of multiple time share exit businesses.

Brian Scroggs, 54, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to one count of wire fraud and one count of failure to pay employment taxes. This successful prosecution is one of many federal fraud cases pursued under the leadership of President Donald Trump and through the establishment of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. According to the plea agreement, Scroggs owned and operated several time-share exit businesses, namely, Vacation Consulting Services, LLC., The Transfer Group, VCS Communication, LLC., and Real Travel, LLC. Through these businesses, Scroggs offered services to get clients out of their time shares. The individuals who hired Scroggs paid him substantial fees to cover costs for the services.

Scroggs took monies from each of his clients while making promises that guaranteed he would either get his clients out of their times shares, give each client a full refund, or assume financial responsibility over the client's time share moving forward.

Scroggs failed to honor the representations and guarantees made to each of his clients despite them paying Scroggs considerable amounts of money. In addition to the fraud associated with his time share exit business, Scroggs also employed numerous sales and administrative employees. While operating these businesses and collecting employment taxes from each employee, Scroggs failed to pay those monies forward to the Internal Revenue Service and the state of Missouri and failed to pay any matching monies that he was obligated to pay as the owner and operator of these businesses.

Under federal statutes, Scroggs is subject to sentences of up to 20 years in federal prison without parole and a maximum fine of $250,000 for Count One, Wire Fraud, and up to five years in federal prison without parole. In addition, Scroggs is subject to a maximum fine of $10,000 for Count Six, Failure to Pay Employment Taxes. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the IRS-CI, the FBI and the Missouri Department of Revenue.