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Owner of Medford construction company sentenced for tax fraud
Mauricio Baiense, 57, of Quincy, was sentenced in federal court to serve 18 months in prison.
The owner of a Medford construction company was sentenced this week to more than a year in prison for tax fraud and making false statements to investigators about a fatal workplace accident, officials announced.
Mauricio Baiense, 57, of Quincy, was sentenced in federal court on Tuesday to serve 18 months in prison, according to the office of U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy. Baiense pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government, seven counts of failure to collect and pay over taxes, one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return, and one count of making false statements.
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Prosecutors said that from about 2013 to 2017, Baiense facilitated drawing about $11 million from the corporate account of the construction company he owned and operated — Contract Framing Builders, Inc. — for subcontractors. Those subcontractors were actually entities controlled by Baiense, officials said, and he directed individuals to cash the checks, using the money to operate an “off-the-books” payroll for employees.
“Baiense did not report the cash wages to the IRS and did not pay employment taxes on wages paid to employees in cash,” Levy’s office said. “Baiense also assisted in the preparation of at least one fraudulent employment tax return that understated the actual wages paid to CFB’s employees.”
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In addition, prosecutors said that when Baiense was questioned under oath by investigators about a fatal workplace accident involving one of his employees, the business-owner lied, claiming the dead employee did not work for him.
In addition to his prison sentence, Baiense was ordered Wednesday to pay $2,824,577.45 in restitution to the United States.
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