Two Jacksonville, Fla., brothers, Travis Slaughter and Tripp Slaughter, recently pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud conspiracy and conspiring to defraud the IRS by operating their roofing companies partly “off the books,” sometimes paying employees without withholding taxes or paying full costs of workers’ compensation insurance, according to The Florida Times-Union. The companies are not NRCA members.
The guilty pleas carried a maximum potential prison sentence of 25 years for each man, but a judge will decide the appropriate sentences in 2025.
Travis Slaughter agreed to forfeit about $2.8 million for the mail and wire fraud and pay about $9.8 million as restitution for lost payroll taxes, unpaid premiums on workers’ compensation insurance and two workers’ compensation claims. Tripp Slaughter agreed to forfeit about $417,000 and pay restitution totaling about $1.2 million for unpaid payroll taxes, uncollected workers’ compensation premiums and a workers’ compensation claim.
The men’s plea deals admitted just two crimes each to settle a 22-count indictment brought in 2023 that said the brothers controlled three roofing companies—including Florida Roofing Experts and 5 Star Roofing Services—and fed faulty information to companies contracted as professional employer organizations to manage tasks such as paying withholding taxes and premiums for workers’ compensation insurance policies, whose cost depended on the number of people working. Roofing workers only reported part of their payrolls through professional employer organizations while crew leaders paid workers the rest in separate checks to cut costs.
Travis Slaughter’s plea admitted paying workers without deducting payroll taxes at Florida Roofing Experts, and Tripp Slaughter’s plea admitted doing the same at 5 Star Roofing Services.
Between 2015 and 2020, the brothers’ roofing companies paid $23 million that was not reported to the IRS. Payroll taxes that should have been collected on those checks totaled $4.3 million.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said both men also underreported their personal incomes to the IRS. Travis Slaughter should have paid almost $2.5 million more in taxes, and Tripp Slaughter should have paid about $264,000 more.
In 2020, Travis Slaughter was involved in a court battle for owing $2.2 million in fines to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
