Article
Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By Enrique
Flor and Brenda Medina
Published April 12, 2016
Roofing company owner David Taylor has been arrested in
Broward County on charges of fraud because one of his enterprises failed to
make workers compensation payments for its employees, authorities announced
Friday.
Taylor’s arrest by the Division of Insurance Fraud came three weeks after el
Nuevo Herald and Univision 23 revealed that another Taylor company had won a
million dollar roofing contract in a Miami-Dade condo — competing against
two alleged ghost companies.
Taylor’s lawyer, Michael Reppas, did not reply to el Nuevo Herald’s requests
for comment on the arrest.
Taylor, 50, was arrested Thursday morning, processed at the central Broward
jail in Fort Lauderdale and freed after paying a $1,000 bail, according to
public records.
Taylor Contracting and Roofing Inc. had been fined $279,538 for failing to
make workers compensation payments for five of its workers.
Records show the Florida Department of Financial Affairs issued a “stop
work” order in February of 2014 requiring the company to stop all work in
the state until the fine was paid. The state eventually put a lien on the
company for the amount owed.
Bank records obtained as part of the official investigation showed that
Taylor’s company did not obey the order and carried out work at the Saint
Demetrios Greek Orthodox church in Fort Lauderdale.
Between April and October of 2014, the church paid Taylor Contracting &
Roofing Inc. a total of $208,842 for repairs to the roof of its temple, the
documents showed.
In 2015, the Division of Insurance Fraud in the Department of Financial
Affairs received complaints that Taylor’s company was violating the “stop
work” order.
But by then Taylor already had created another company, D&T General
Contracting, Inc, which won a $5.2 million contract to repair the roofs of
the 12 buildings in The Beach Club condominiums at Fontainebleau Park.
The investigation by el Nuevo Herald and Univision 23 revealed that only two
paper companies linked to Taylor employees had bid on the job. They were
Tri-County Inc., based in Weston, and Northeast Contracting, based in
Plantation.
When journalists visited the addresses listed by the two companies, they
turned out to be homes whose current residents denied that any businesses
operated there.
Taylor holds two licenses, set to expire Aug. 31, registered with the
Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, one as a general
contractor and another as a roofing contractor.
More than 50 Beach Club owners held a public protest and demanded the
resignation of the board of directors after learning about the paper
companies in the bid process, as well as the falsification of the signatures
of at least 84 owners on votes for the board’s elections in November.
The following day, the board members resigned and owners canceled the
contract with Sunshine Management Services, which had been managing the
condominium.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro has proposed creating a
special unit to combat condo fraud. The proposal has the backing of
Miami-Dade Police Department Director Juan J. Perez and would be staffed by
detectives from several police departments.
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