A New Bedford fisherman has snagged himself 18 months behind bars for tax evasion. Joaquin Sosa, who worked as a deckhand and made roughly $1.9 million between 2012 and 2021, didn't file his tax returns or pay taxes on the hefty sum he reeled in over the years, which also included using false identities to further conceal his income. The flow of the cash that he earned was obscured because he cashed his paychecks at check-cashing business using these identities, funding his personal lifestyle, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani sentenced Sosa to not only a prison term but also a three-year period of supervised release, along with socking him with a restitution bill of $520,415, the sum he skimped out on paying to the IRS.
Sosa’s maritime maneuvers on tax evasion punctuated with his method of cashing checks under fake identities, demonstrated a deliberate effort to keep the income. During his sentencing, the court ordered that the poached profits be paid back to hold Sosa accountable for bleeding the IRS. Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, Harry Chavis Jr., commented on the case as a stern reminder that flouting tax laws will result in serious consequences, emphasizing the commitment of IRS Criminal Investigation to uphold the integrity of the tax system.
The case was brought to the surface following a concerted investigation by the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigations in Boston with Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy of the Justice Department’s Tax Division declaring the sentencing, highlighting the meticulous work by Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor Wild of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit and members of the Tax Division.
