A Massachusetts businessman, hailing from Dorchester, has been handed a prison sentence for carrying out a tax fraud scheme to the tune of over two million dollars. Det Tran, aged 62, was sentenced to one year and one day in the clink, followed by three years supervised release, and was also ordered to cough up more than $2.5 million in restitution, as reported on the Department of Justice's website.
The scheme, which lasted from at least 2018 through 2021, witnessed Det Tran through his company HTP Temp. Inc., paying $8 million in undisclosed cash wages to employees; this act of financial deception led to inaccurate quarterly filings to the IRS for employee wages and Tran's evasion of over $2.1 million in employment taxes, all while his accountant was left in the dark.
U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin delivered Tran's sentence in federal court in Boston, after he pleaded guilty to a pair of counts related to his failure to collect and pay over employment taxes this past September. Tran's guilt admission comes following a multi-year investigation that brought to light the extent of his underhanded practices while at the helm of HTP.
The case received applause from authorities for its conclusion, with United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Jonathan Wlodyka, the Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, crediting their teams for the pinch; they also thanked the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts for their collaboration. The successful prosecution of the case was led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin A. Saltzman from the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit, and this sentencing marks a finale to a significant case of tax evasion in the state.
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