JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Travis Morgan Slaughter and Tripp Charles Slaughter have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit tax fraud related to their Jacksonville roofing business.
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According to their plea agreements, the Slaughters have operated their roofing business since 2007, however under three separate names: Great White Construction, Florida Roofing Experts, and 5 Star Roofing Services. Even with the name changes, each business operated in the same manner, banked at the same financial institutions and employed the same employees.
The company had worked with professional employer organizations (PEOs) to help prepare payroll. However, the company would disclose information regarding the total hours worked and the wages due to employees.
Instead, to avoid paying the total amount of payroll taxes to the IRS, the company would also pay their companies directly with checks tied to company bank accounts using a “split check” method.
From January 2017 through July 2020, the PEOs issued payroll checks to the employees totaling approximately $4,930,613, after deducting and paying over to the IRS the payroll taxes due. During that same period, the company issued checks to the employees totaling approximately $18,545,845, with no payroll taxes being deducted or paid. The total unpaid payroll taxes on that amount were $2,768,377.
The PEOs also secured workers' compensation insurance coverage for the company. The premiums charged by the workers' compensation insurers were based on the total amount of payroll that the company reported to the PEOs. If the company had reported the actual amount of payroll, the insurers would have charged additional premiums totaling $2,780,947.
In addition to causing the company to underreport their payroll to the IRS, the Slaughters also underreported their personal income to the IRS. For the tax years 2014 through 2019, the total unpaid taxes due on Travis Slaughter’s unreported income totaled $2,467,183. For the tax years 2015 through 2019, the total unpaid taxes due on Tripp Slaughter’s unreported income totaled $263,614.
The following breakdown shows how much the Slaughters agreed to forefit to the United States:
- Mail and Wire Fraud
- Travis - $2,780,947
- Tripp - $416,800
- Restitution for payroll tax
- Travis - $6,768,612
- Tripp - $623,269
- Unpaid workers compensation premiums
- Travis - $2,780,947
- Tripp - $416,800
- Paid workers compensation claims
- Travis - $271,217
- Tripp - $137,778
The Slaughters face a maximum penalty of 5 years in federal prison for the tax fraud offense and up to 20 years' imprisonment for the mail and wire fraud offense. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General, and the Florida Department of Financial Services.
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