Watertown Business Owner Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion and Mail Fraud

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – A Watertown business owner pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with a scheme to evade taxes and workers’ compensation insurance premiums by paying employees under-the-table for their work. 

Richard Moxley, 67, pleaded guilty one count of tax evasion and one count of mail fraud.  U.S. District Court Senior Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing for August 17, 2016.

Moxley owned and operated Sparkling Windows, a window and gutter cleaning company based in Watertown.  From 2008 to 2012, Moxley devised and executed a scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and the insurance company providing workers’ compensation insurance for Sparkling’s employees, by filing false tax returns and paying workers “under the table.”  To do this, Moxley arranged to bring client checks to a check casher, and paid undocumented workers weekly wages in cash.  By doing so, he concealed a substantial portion of the company’s business revenues and payroll, and filed false tax returns, evading a significant portion of federal taxes, and fraudulently reducing the premiums for workers’ compensation insurance owed in connection with the business.

The charge of tax evasion provides for a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.  The charge of mail fraud provides for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Joel P. Garland, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston; and Matthew Etre, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, made the announcement.  The case was investigated with the cooperation of the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eve A. Piemonte.

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