Roofing Business Owner and Payroll Administrator Both Plead Guilty in Employment Tax Conspiracy

A Florida man and woman both pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to defraud the United States by not paying employment taxes to the IRS.

According to court documents and statements made in court, William Skaggs Jr. owned and operated Nastar Roofing, a roofing company that operated throughout the Fort Myers area. Billie Adkison was the business's main office administrator, whose duties included managing payroll.

Between 2013 and 2023, Nastar employees, including Skaggs and Adksion, and others acting at their direction withdrew over $21 million from the company's bank accounts to pay employees predominantly in cash without withholding Social Security, Medicare and federal income taxes from those wages. They did this to escape paying employment taxes they knew were legally required.

At times, Nastar used a payroll provider to issue nominal employee paychecks, but Nastar did not inform the payroll company about the cash wages. As such, when the payroll company filed employment tax returns with the IRS that included wages for Nastar employees, the forms were false in that they did not report the cash wages. Similarly, when Nastar did not use a payroll provider and filed its own employment tax returns, it failed to report the substantial cash wages paid to employees. Both Skaggs and Adkison signed a number of these tax returns, knowing that they were false.

In total, Skaggs and Adkison caused a tax loss to the IRS of nearly $2.5 million.

Skaggs and Adkison are scheduled to be sentenced at a later date. They face a maximum penalty of five years in prison. They also face a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department's Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg for the Middle District of Florida made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Kevin Schneider of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Leeman for the Middle District of Florida are prosecuting the case.