BOSTON – A Boxford plumbing contractor was sentenced to more than a year in prison yesterday after engaging in a multi-year scheme to defraud customers by overcharging them and by billing them for services he did not perform and by evading his income taxes – defrauding the government of more than $1.45 million.
Jared Derrico, a/k/a “Jay,” 35, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel to one year and one day in prison and three years of supervised release. Derrico was also ordered to forfeit $315,000 in criminal proceeds and to pay $1.45 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. The Court deferred to impose a fine, pending further proceedings to determine restitution to the victims of Derrico’s fraud scheme. On Feb. 1, 2022, Derrico pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion and two counts of mail fraud.
For tax years 2015 through 2019, Derrico operated a plumbing business known, variously, as Derrico Services and The Pipe Surgeon. During that time, 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 this tax returns. Derrico also fraudulently obtained payments for installing air conditioning units at a property in Boston, but in fact, did not install the units. In total, Derrico defrauded at least 11 customers by overcharging for his services or charging for services he did not perform.
United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston; and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, made the announcement. The United State Postal Inspection Service and the Ipswich Police Department also provided valuable support in the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kriss Basil of Rollins’ Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.