Yesterday, October 12, Stephen Schofield, a 70-year-old businessman from Melrose, Massachusetts, pled guilty to a ten-year tax fraud scheme, defrauding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of around $1,051,000. Schofield had not submitted taxes withheld from the employees of his two firms, Schofield Concrete Forms and Schofields of Melrose, Inc. The admission was made to U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper, with sentencing set for January 23, 2024, as detailed by a Department of Justice press release.
Schofield withheld federal and state employment taxes from his workforce's wages from 2010 to 2020, providing them with W-2 forms that reported these withholdings. Yet, Schofield failed to forward the retained taxes to the IRS, infringing federal law.
For not paying over taxes, Schofield could face up to five years in prison, three years of which to be supervised release, and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss—whichever turns out greater. The Department of Justice press release further states that sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge, using the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other legislation that determine sentencing in criminal cases.
The guilty plea was announced by Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office, on October 12, 2023. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor A. Wild of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit.
