A district court judge sentenced Wilmington entrepreneur George Taylor Jr. to a year and a day in prison on Wednesday for not paying more than $2 million in employment taxes and not filing employment tax returns related to his company National Speed.
Chief Judge Richard E. Myers II sentenced Taylor to three years of supervised release following his prison time, along with paying restitution of $2.6 million to the U.S. government, an amount that includes Taylor’s $2.3 million in unpaid taxes plus interest.
Myers recommended Taylor be held at a “low-intensity facility” close to his family with access to educational, health care and mental health resources. Taylor’s attorney, Doug Kingsbery of Raleigh-based Tharrington Smith LLP, requested he be placed at DCI Butner, a correctional facility located in Butner, North Carolina.
In August, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced Taylor had pleaded guilty to not paying the employment taxes or filing the employment tax returns. U.S. Attorney Michael Easley said in an August news release that “for years, this businessman took millions from employees’ paychecks, supposedly for taxes, and spent it to pad his business and personal expenses.”
Taylor owned and operated the automotive services business National Speed, which has a location in Wilmington. In recent years, Taylor gained attention for starting TRU Colors, a brewery that aimed to address gang violence. The brewery closed in 2022. His guilty plea in August related only to National Speed.
Myers said he tried to take into consideration Taylor’s “whole person” when determining the sentence but couldn’t unsee the criminal behavior. He noted the many letters the court had received from past employees, friends and family, showing Taylor’s impact across in the community.
In an address to the judge, Taylor said he took responsibility for his decisions.
“There’s no excuse for the decision I made,” he said. “I’m the only one who made the decision.”
He added the period was a stressful time for him while he was trying to start TRU Colors and grow National Speed.
“At the time, the only decisions to be made were the wrong decisions,” he said.
However, trial attorney Brian Flanagan of the U.S. tax division argued that instead of simply keeping National Speed and his other businesses afloat, Taylor was growing the businesses. He noted National Speed grew its number of employees and added a second office location during the period of unpaid taxes.
“This wasn’t something that got out of hand, this was a business model,” Flanagan said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office also argued that a sentence in line with its recommended 27-month sentencing guideline would also provide a deterrent to other business owners who might be tempted to dip into employee trust funds instead of paying the funds to the government.
Kingsbery pointed out that Taylor used the funds to invest in National Speed instead of using them to enrich himself. Myers said this factored into his sentencing, which was less than half of the recommendation from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Your motives while misguided were not in greed,” Myers said.
