BOSTON – The former owner of a Peabody construction company was sentenced today in connection with a scheme to defraud the IRS of payroll taxes and to defraud his workers’ compensation insurance carrier by failing to disclose how many workers he employed.
Argyrios “Eric” Mavros, 57, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young to 18 months in prison and 18 months of supervised release. Mavros was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,007,760 to the IRS and $158,524 to his workers’ compensation insurance carrier. On Nov. 1, 2021, Mavros pleaded guilty to 10 counts of failure to collect or pay over taxes and one count of mail fraud.
Mavros, who owned Mavros Construction, Inc., cashed more than $3.3 million in customer checks at a Peabody check cashing business and used some of those funds to pay his employees in cash. Mavros failed to report these employees or their wages in quarterly corporate tax filings, in an effort to avoid paying Social Security and Medicare taxes on employee wages and withholding federal income taxes. Overall, Mavros failed to pay and withhold federal taxes on more than $2.5 million in wages, resulting in a tax loss of more than $1 million. Additionally, Mavros failed to report these employees to his workers’ compensation insurance carrier, thereby defrauding the insurer of more than $150,000 in premiums.
United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen A. Kearney of Rollins’ Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.