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Prosecutors said that plumbing contractor Jared “Jay" Derrico, age 35, of the town of Boxford in Essex County, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion and two counts of mail fraud in February.
In addition to his prison time, Derrico was ordered to forfeit $315,000 and pay $1.45 million in restitution to the IRS.
According to the US Attorney's Office, “the Court deferred imposing a fine, pending further proceedings to determine restitution to the victims of Derrico’s fraud scheme.”
Between 2015 and 2019, Derrico operated a plumbing business known as Derrico Services or The Pipe Surgeon until he lost his license.
During that time, prosecutors said that Derrico routinely overcharged his customers for plumbing, maintenance, and construction work he performed and billed his customers for work he did not perform at all.
Derrico then cashed payments from his customers or deposited them into his personal accounts and misled his tax preparer about the gross receipts from his business to evade reporting this income on his tax returns, they said.
He also fraudulently obtained payments for installing air conditioning units at a property in Boston, but in fact, did not install the units, according to officials.
In total, Derrico defrauded at least 11 customers by overcharging for his services or charging for services he did not perform.
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