Roofing Company Owner Arrested on Fraud Charges

Tuesday, April 12, 2016 | 0

The owner of a South Florida roofing company, already under fire over alleged bidding irregularities related to his bid for reroofing a Miami condominium complex, was arrested last week on charges that he failed to provide workers' compensation coverage and violated a stop-work order, the Miami Herald reported Saturday.

The Herald said David Taylor was arrested Thursday on fraud charges in Broward County. Taylor, 50, was released from the central Broward jail in Fort Lauderdale after paying a $1,000 bond, the newspaper said.

Nuevo Herald and Univision reported last month that Taylor had won a $1 million contract with The Beach Club in Miami after submitting the lowest of three bids. But the other two bids were submitted by shell companies, the newspapers reported. Reporters who visited the listed addresses found residents who denied that any businesses were operating there.

The state Division of Insurance Fraud in February 2014 fined Taylor Contracting and Roofing Inc. $279,538 for failing to provide workers' compensation coverage for five employees. The division issued a stop-work order, but Taylor created a new firm, D&T General Contracting. The company won a $5.2 million contract to repair the roofs of 12 buildings at The Beach Club.

The board of directors of The Beach Club resigned after news reports revealed Taylor had won the contract for repairing the roofs of 12 buildings at the Fountainebleau Park complex while competing against two shell companies.