Kansas City’s Hispanic contractors say H&R Block didn’t earn its tax break

In the suit, filed back in 2005, Armando Diaz of Diaz Construction Company and other members of the Hispanic contractors’ association claimed that, during the construction of its new world headquarters, H&R Block and its general contractor, J.E. Dunn, paid fees to minority-owned businesses that acted as fronts, or “pass-through” companies, sending the work back to white subcontractors (“A City that Works?” November 15, 2007). It was a tricky way for H&R Block and J.E. Dunn to appear as if they were meeting the city’s minority-hiring goals without actually giving work to minorities, the contractors claimed.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Charles Atwell dismissed the case in December, saying that the contractors lacked legal standing to file the suit. But his ruling did acknowledge that the contractors had “presented meaningful evidence … suggesting that certifications provided by J.E. Dunn were inaccurate, false, or misleading.”"*

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