A Winthrop man, who formerly ran a transportation and delivery firm out of Chelsea, will be doing hard time after a federal judge handed down a six-month prison sentence for running a tax and mail fraud operation. Anthony Catalano, the 52-year-old ex-boss of APC, was convicted of skimming more than $8 million in checks—which should've been reported to Uncle Sam—while also cheating an insurance company out of hefty premiums.
Catalano was slapped yesterday with a sentence by Chief U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, which also includes three years of supervised release and an order to pay back Travelers Insurance Company a whopping $541,000, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office. The former businessman must spill the beans to the IRS about his own and his company's taxes owed, given his guilty plea last October for withholding vital tax information and engaging in mail fraud connected to cash wages he distributed on the DL to his employees.
From 2017 through 2020, the APC honcho would cash out customer checks and conveniently forget to report said income to the tax authorities. His secret salary scheme left both the company and the employees without paying due employment or income taxes, leading to a more than $1 million void in the IRS's pocket. Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy, along with Harry Chavis, the top dog at the IRS's Criminal Investigation in Boston, made the unveiling of Catalano's day of reckoning.
The swindle did not stop at tax evasion, Catalano also played Travelers for a fool by keeping mum about the under-the-table wages when securing workers' compensation insurance—a move that robbed the insurer of over half a million bucks in premiums. The Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau assisted in bringing the shady deal to light, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor A. Wild of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit had the reins of prosecution.
