The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida announced March 20 that Jacksonville residents Travis Slaughter and Tripp Slaughter were sentenced to 41 months and 21 months in federal prison, respectively, for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit tax fraud related to Jacksonville roofing businesses they operated.
The Slaughters pleaded guilty Nov. 25, 2024.
As part of their sentence, the court entered an order of forfeiture against Travis Slaughter in the amount of $2,780,947.56 and against Tripp Slaughter in the amount $416,799.66, which were proceeds traceable to the mail and wire fraud offenses.
The court also ordered Travis Slaughter to pay restitution in the amount of $6,768,612.32 to the IRS for payroll tax losses, $2,780,947.56 to two insurance companies for unpaid workers’ compensation insurance premiums, and $271,217.39 to the same two companies for two paid workers’ compensation claims.
The court ordered Tripp Slaughter to pay restitution of $623,269.64 to the IRS for payroll tax losses, $416,799.66 to an insurance company for unpaid workers’ compensation insurance premiums, and $137,778.39 to the same company for a paid workers’ compensation claim.
“The actions of these two defendants represent a blatant disregard for U.S. law and our financial systems. Despite operating successful construction businesses that generated millions of dollars in wealth, their greed drove them to lie and cheat for years,” Special Agent in Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Tampa Field Office Ron Loecker said in a news release.
“Their scheme to evade millions of dollars in taxes not only undermined the integrity of our tax system but also created an unfair advantage in which law-abiding competitors cannot compete for bids. Our job is to make sure dishonest offenders like these two face the consequences of their criminal activities.”
According to court documents, beginning in 2007, Travis Slaughter operated a roofing business in Jacksonville, first under the name Great White Construction and then under the name Florida Roofing Experts.
In January 2020, the business began operating under the name 5 Star Roofing Services, which Tripp Slaughter incorporated. Although the name changed, each business operated in the same manner, banked at the same financial institutions, and employed the same employees.
The company contracted with professional employer organizations to prepare payroll checks for employees, after making deductions for payroll taxes, and to file payroll tax returns and forward tax payments to governmental authorities.
However, the company did not provide the PEOs with information about all the hours worked by, or all the wages due to, its employees. Instead, the company also paid the employees directly, with separate checks drawn on company bank accounts, and did not deduct payroll taxes from these checks.
By paying employees with “split checks”—one from the PEO and one from the company—the company avoided paying the full amount of payroll taxes due to the IRS.
For the period of October 2015 through June 2020, the company paid approximately $23,079,680 in wages that were not reported to the IRS. The payroll taxes due to the IRS on this amount total approximately $4,292,429.
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 approximately $2,780,947.
In addition to causing the company to underreport their payroll, the Slaughters also underreported their personal income to the IRS.
For the tax years 2014 through 2019, the unpaid taxes due on Travis Slaughter’s unreported income totaled approximately $2,467,183. For the tax years 2015 through 2019, the unpaid taxes due on Tripp Slaughter’s unreported income totaled approximately $263,614.
The case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General, and the Florida Department of Financial Services.
It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold Corsmeier. The asset forfeiture is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Harrington.