A Connecticut fisherman has been handed a prison sentence for tax evasion, failing to report over $1.4 million in income from his commercial fishing endeavors. On Wednesday, Brian Kobus, 49, from Durham, got one year and a day behind bars, a sentence that will be followed by a year of supervised release. The U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton also ordered Kobus to pay back the United States in the form of $377,839 in restitution.
For more than three decades, Kobus worked the New England waters as a deckhand and earned significant taxable income. Documents provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, say that between 2011 and 2013, and again from 2017 to 2021, Kobus' income was comprehensively detailed by the fishing companies he worked for. They paid him by check and provided the necessary IRS forms indicating his earnings and the lack of tax withholdings. Kobus, failing to fulfill his civic responsibilities, did not file federal income tax returns or pay taxes on these earnings.
Kobus intentionally hid his income by converting his paychecks to cash as soon as they were in his hands, navigating his financial life entirely through cash transactions. According to the prosecution, his actions amounted to a tax loss of exactly $377,839.90 for the Internal Revenue Service. The Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy remarked on the case, as did Harry Chavis, Jr., the Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigations in Boston.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor Wild of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit, together with Trial Attorney Matthew L. Cofer of the Tax Division, headed the prosecution efforts against Kobus. Following his guilty plea in July to two counts of tax evasion, Kobus received no additional leniency from the justice system. His criminal conduct, which lasted several years, led to consequences as he cashed each paycheck while concealing his income from tax authorities.
