Workers at Single Shot Kitchen and Saloon on Capitol Hill had taxes pulled from every paycheck for a decade. Their boss kept the money.

Ruadhri "Rory" McCormick, 44, pleaded guilty Monday, July 27, in U.S. District Court to willfully failing to pay more than $1.4 million in federal employment taxes, including Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment contributions withheld directly from his employees' paychecks.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington announced the plea.

Between late 2014 and the third quarter of 2024, McCormick withheld $1,027,362 from workers' checks across 36 quarters and pocketed it rather than sending it to the IRS, according to Capitol Hill Seattle Blog.

He also failed to pay $418,979 in required employer-matching contributions, bringing the total tax loss to $1,446,341. He admitted to skipping his personal income tax filings from 2015 through 2024.

What it means for the workers

Once an employer withholds federal taxes from a paycheck, the worker is legally credited for paying those taxes regardless of whether the employer actually remits them.

But the harm runs deeper than a balance sheet. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said in a statement that the failure to remit the taxes means employees may not be eligible for federal benefits they paid for and were counting on.

IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Carrie Nordyke said McCormick's employees trusted him with their withholdings and he kept more than $1 million for himself.

The restaurant stays open

Single Shot, a 12-year-old New American restaurant at 611 Summit Ave E, remains open and has not announced any closure, according to the Seattle Times. McCormick is also a partner in two other Seattle restaurants, Re:Public and El Grito Taqueria, but neither is named in the federal case.

Sentencing and the scale of wage theft in Seattle

Under the plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend no more than 15 months in prison. The offense carries a maximum of five years and a $250,000 fine.

McCormick agreed to pay $1,446,341 in full restitution to the IRS. U.S. District Judge Kimberly K. Evanson will set the final sentence at a hearing in October 2026.

The case is a federal criminal prosecution, distinct from the civil enforcement work of Seattle's Office of Labor Standards. But it lands in a city where wage theft is widespread.

The OLS has recovered $52 million for more than 100,000 workers since 2020, according to Cascade PBS reporting from March 2026.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown told Cascade PBS in March: "Wage theft is one of those problems that not a lot of people have great visibility to. But really, collectively, the amount of money that's stolen from employees dwarfs the amount of money that's taken from thefts and burglaries and robberies."

What workers can do

The McCormick case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation, not a worker complaint. But Seattle workers who suspect unpaid wages, withheld tips, or scheduling violations can contact the Office of Labor Standards at (206) 256-5297 or [email protected]. The state Department of Labor and Industries handles complaints outside Seattle city limits.