Richard Cooper, the owner of a paving company operating north of Boston, has been sentenced for income tax evasion. The sentencing took place on January 30, 2025, in Boston.
Cooper, aged 71 and residing in Billerica, received a sentence from U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper. He will serve six months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. Additionally, Cooper is required to pay $989,819 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This follows his guilty plea in October 2024 to four counts of tax evasion.
The case against Cooper revealed that from 2017 to 2020 he engaged in a scheme involving customer payments. While depositing some payments into bank accounts under his company's name, Rick Cooper Paving, he also cashed over $5.1 million worth of customer checks without reporting them during tax preparation. This omission led to significant underreporting of his business's gross receipts and resulted in an avoidance of over $1.1 million owed in federal and state taxes.
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Thomas Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge at the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Boston Field Office. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kriss Basil from the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit.