Sudbury CPA Charged With and Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Defraud the IRS and Pandemic Relief Fraud

BOSTON – The owner of a Sudbury accounting firm and a real estate company has been charged and has agreed to plead guilty to paying an executive more than $1.6 million in compensation and fringe benefits under the table, and to making a fraudulent application for more than $179,000 in pandemic relief, through a multi-year scheme.

Charles D. Katz, 63, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of loan fraud. The defendant pleaded guilty on Oct. 20, 2025 and is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 2, 2026 before U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin.

According to the charging documents, Katz and an employee, who served as the Director of Corporate Services at Katz’s accounting firm and as Chief Operating Officer at Katz’s real estate firm, allegedly agreed that Katz would pay the employee off the books so that the employee would have tax-free income and so that Katz’s firms, CD Katz LLC and Gebsco Realty Corporation, would have lower employment taxes. Over time, Katz allegedly paid the employee’s family, provided rent-free housing to the employee’s ex-wife, paid college tuition for the employee’s children, and paid personal expenses that the employee and the employee’s ex-wife charged on corporate credit cards. All told, it is alleged that Katz paid the employee at least $1,668,487 in unreported income and avoided taxes of at least $835,105. It is also alleged that in 2020, Katz and the employee fraudulently applied for Paycheck Protection Program loans for both of Katz’s firms and obtained $179,900 which Katz used in part to fund the under-the-table compensation he paid the employee.

The charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of loan fraud provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000, restitution, and forfeiture.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Thomas Demeo, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office; and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kriss Basil, Deputy Chief of the Securities, Financial and Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.