Naples Business Owner Pleads Guilty in $28M Payroll Tax Fraud

Naples Business Owner Pleads Guilty in $28M Payroll Tax Fraud

Naples is making headlines for all the wrong reasons this week. A local drywall company manager admitted to running an off-the-books payroll scheme that funneled more than $28 million in cash wages to workers between 2017 and 2019.

Federal investigators say the operation worked like this: contractors wrote thousands of checks to Tape Drywall Services Inc., the company at the center of the case. Instead of paying workers through standard payroll, the checks were cashed, and employees were handed envelopes of cash. No wages were reported to the IRS, and no payroll taxes were withheld.

On paper, it looked like business as usual. In reality, the scheme left the federal government short more than $4.2 million in employment taxes—money that should have gone toward programs like Social Security and Medicare. At the same time, the company slashed its own costs by underreporting payroll to insurance providers, lowering workers’ comp premiums and creating an uneven playing field in the construction industry.

The guilty plea puts the manager on track for federal sentencing. The maximum penalty is five years in prison, along with restitution, fines, and supervised release. A federal judge will decide the exact outcome in the months ahead.

For Naples, the case underscores how fraud in the construction and contracting world doesn’t just hurt the IRS—it ripples out to taxpayers, honest businesses, and even workers who miss out on the protections of documented payroll. It’s a reminder that “under the table” might sound simple, but in the long run, it cheats the entire system.