Following the dollar signs: No one arrested yet in Dalton tax fraud case (video)

Nikita Dillard became suspicious when her paycheck dropped by $20.

It was the fall of 2011. She had been working with Temporary Replacement Personnel, a Dalton, Ga.-based staffing company, for a couple of months. Her hours had not changed. Her pay rate had not changed.

So where did that $20 go?

“They never could explain it,” Dillard said Friday. “It was crazy.”

Earlier this week, she found out that there are active warrants out for the arrests of her former bosses, Delayne Sproles and Linda Naylor. A spokesman for the Georgia Department of Revenue said the women owe about $370,000 in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest.

As of Friday afternoon, neither woman had been arrested.

When she heard the news, Dillard reflected on her time with the staffing company. She said Sproles helped her get a job interview with North Georgia Electric Membership Corp., which paid TRP for her work. TRP then paid Dillard, keeping a finder’s fee for themselves.

She did not meet Naylor during her 1 1/2 years on the job. But she said Sproles seemed disorganized. When Dillard’s paychecks decreased, she said Sproles simply told her, “stuff like that happens.”

Though her pay was supposed to be directly deposited into her account, Dillard said the company frequently missed payments. Sproles would cut her a paper check days later.

Missing $20 a week for about a year, Dillard wonders if the company cheated her out of about $1,000.

“I feel like I was affected by whatever craziness is going on,” she said.

Sproles did not return a call or text message seeking comment Friday. Naylor, whom authorities say now lives in Naples, Fla., could not be reached for comment.

But Allen Gillespie, who said he was in a relationship with Sproles for 12 years and still helps her raise her daughters, said his ex-girlfriend is innocent. He said she started the staffing company in 2009 but asked Naylor to run the day-to-day operations. Sproles left the company in 2013.

Gillespie said Sproles didn’t know the company was not paying taxes.

“We’re not guilty of anything,” he said. “We’re good people. And we’re broke.”

He said Sproles only found out that investigators wanted to arrest her from watching the news earlier this week.

But Nick Genesi, the Georgia Department of Revenue’s communications director, said members of his agency communicated with Naylor and Sproles about this issue more than 30 times. Most recently, he said an investigator called Sproles four months ago. He told her she would be arrested if she didn’t help the department recover the $370,000 that she and Naylor owed.

He said Sproles, who was also arrested in December on charges of trying to sneak marijuana and methamphetamine into Hays State Prison, ignored the investigator. Naylor did, too.

“They flat out refused to work this out,” Genesi said.

He added that the company also owes the Internal Revenue Service $2.2 million.

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6476.