Yesterday morning, Medford contractor Peter Tufts was handed a U.S. District Court sentence for tax evasion and false loan application submissions, as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Judge Allison D. Burroughs sentenced Tufts, aged 55, to two years of supervised release, 240 hours of community service, and financial penalties including a $50,000 fine, forfeiture of $450,000 and restitution of $551,941. Tufts, the owner of Tufts Construction, Inc. in Everett, had previously pled guilty to one count of tax evasion and two counts of filing false loan applications on July 13.
Investigations revealed that Tufts had, during tax years 2015 to 2021, cashed customer's checks without reporting the income in his tax filings, leading to an income tax loss exceeding $465,000. He used the cash to fund an undeclared payroll system, accruing an additional payroll tax loss of over $539,000.
In addition, Tufts had managed, in his effort to secure loans from a community bank and the Small Business Administration (SBA), to submit fraudulent loan applications. Deception saw him state that he had never filed for bankruptcy, had no outstanding tax debt, and wasn't partaking in any litigation. Subsequent findings showed that he was engaged in prolonged bankruptcy proceedings and income and employment tax evasion during questionings for these loans.
The Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigations in Boston, the United States Postal Inspection Service in Boston, and the Massachusetts Department of Revenue's Criminal Investigations Bureau worked together on investigating and sentencing Tufts. Prosecution was managed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kriss Basil and James R. Drabick of the Securities, Financial, and Cyber Fraud Unit.
