A Hopkinton man has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to charges of tax and mail fraud in connection with his management of two construction companies. Dariusz Pietron, 51, was handed an 18-month prison term last friday by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in federal court in Boston, a sentence that will be followed by three years of supervised release. Pietron must pay $1,107,000 to the Internal Revenue Service and $244,000 to Travelers Insurance Company as restitution. This was confirmed by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The charges stem from actions between 2012 and October 2018, when Pietron ran TJM Construction, Inc. and Point Construction, Inc. He admitted to intentionally neglecting to report wages paid to employees, to willfully fail to collect necessary income taxes, and to not pay the employment taxes he was obligated to. This evasion allowed Pietron to underpay more than $1.1 million in employment taxes. His fraudulent acts extended to paying less workers’ compensation insurance premiums than due by misleading Travelers Insurance Company about the actual wages his employees were earning, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Pietron set up three shell companies to falsely classify his employees as subcontractors, avoiding taxes and workers' compensation over six years. The scheme was uncovered by U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy, Internal Revenue Service agent Tom Demeo, and Katherine Mulligan from the Insurance Fraud Bureau. Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor A. Wild led the prosecution, as stated by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
