BOSTON – An Ipswich, Mass. man who owned and operated numerous businesses, including a painting and roofing company, was sentenced Wednesday for manipulating his payroll to evade over $1.8 million in taxes.

George Vasiliades, 58, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs to one year of home confinement and three years of supervised release. Vasiliades was also ordered to pay more than $1.8 million in restitution and a $200,000 fine. The government recommended a sentence of 30 months in prison.

In December 2021, Vasiliades pleaded guilty to 17 counts of failure to collect, account for and pay over federal employment taxes; 17 counts of aiding and assisting the filing of false tax returns; and one count of making a false statement to the Social Security Administration.

According to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts, Vasiliades operated several businesses, including: Alpine Property Services, Boston Central Management, Delta Labor Company, Olympic Painting & Roofing and Turnpike General Contracting. Between 2008 and 2013, Vasiliades concealed the true size of his companies’ payroll from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in order to reduce the cost of doing business and thereby increase his profits.

Among other methods, Vasiliades directed certain employees to create shell corporations and then paid employees through these corporations as if they were independent contractors. Vasiliades also paid some employees from bank accounts that were not connected to his corporate payroll reporting software and, as a result, would not be reported as wages to the IRS. In addition, Vasiliades paid part of an employee’s hourly wages or salary in nontaxable, and false, expense reimbursements, such as truck or fuel reimbursements. In total, Vasiliades’ scheme resulted in more than $1.8 million in tax losses.