A Hopkinton man, Dariusz Pietron, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on January 10, 2025, in federal court in Boston. The sentencing follows his conviction for defrauding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Travelers Insurance Company regarding wages paid to employees of his two construction companies.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani also ordered Pietron to serve three years of supervised release after his prison term and to pay restitution amounting to $1,107,000 to the IRS and $244,000 to Travelers Insurance Company. In May 2024, Pietron admitted guilt to three counts of failure to collect and pay over employment taxes and one count of mail fraud related to underpaid workers' compensation insurance premiums.
Pietron owned TJM Construction, Inc. (TJM) and Point Construction, Inc. (Point) from 2012 until October 2018. During this period, he did not report employee wages or withhold necessary income taxes for the IRS. He also failed to pay required employment taxes and did not disclose actual employee wages to Travelers Insurance Company. This led him to pay less than owed in workers' compensation insurance premiums.
As part of his fraudulent activities, Pietron recruited two employees who established three shell companies. These entities were used to make it appear as if TJM's and Point's employees were subcontractors without tax or workers’ compensation obligations on Pietron's part. Consequently, he avoided paying over $1.1 million in employment taxes and defrauded Travelers out of approximately $244,000.
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Tom Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation at the Boston Field Office; and Katherine Mulligan, Chief of Investigations for the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts. Assistant United States Attorney Victor A. Wild from the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.