BOSTON – The owner of a paving company doing business north of Boston was sentenced on Jan. 30, 2025 for a multi-year income tax evasion scheme.
Richard Cooper, 71, of Billerica, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to six months in prison to be followed by two years of supervised release. Cooper was also ordered to pay $989,819 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. In October 2024, Cooper pleaded guilty to four counts of tax evasion.
From 2017 to 2020, in addition to depositing customer payments into bank accounts in the name of his company, Rick Cooper Paving, Cooper also cashed more than $5.1 million in customer checks. When Cooper had his taxes prepared, he did not tell his preparer about the checks he was cashing, resulting in his tax returns underreporting the business’ gross receipts by millions. As a result, Cooper kept over $1.1 million that he should have paid in federal and state income taxes.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Thomas Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kriss Basil, Deputy Chief of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.
