Owner of Milton Roofing Business Pleads Guilty to Failing to Report $2.1 Million in Business Receipts

BOSTON – The owner of George H. Richard & Son Roofing in Milton, Mass., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to filing a false tax return which failed to disclose substantial business receipts.    

Harry S. Richard, 68, pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false individual tax return.  U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled sentencing for Sept. 11, 2018.

Richard owned and operated Richard Roofing, a business established by his great-grandfather in 1865. From 2010 through 2013, Richard deposited the bulk of the payments he received for roofing services into his personal bank accounts and failed to disclose those receipts to his tax return preparer or on his tax returns. Many of the checks he received from his customers were made payable to Richard personally, at his direction. Over the course of four years, Richard failed to report more than $2.1 million in business receipts on his tax returns, and thereby avoided paying taxes totaling about $353,246. 

The charge of filing a false tax return provides for a sentence of no greater than three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.  

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Kristina O’Connell, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. Balthazard of Lelling’s Economic Crimes Unit is prosecuting the case.