Rotten produce guy can't beet federal fraud charge; gets 15 months in stir

A Chelsea produce distributor who admitted he was a rapscallion for seeking insurance payments for spoiled produce that was perfectly fine was sentenced to 15 months in prison this week and ordered to pay $221,000 in restitution and fines, the US Attorney's office reports.

The feds got on the case of John Alphas, 56, of Weston, in 2014, after investigators for two insurance companies did turn up what they considered inflated claims for alleged bad or missing produce. He pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in 2014.

The feds charged Alphas just could not leaf well enough alone. In total, Alphas sought roughly $450,000 in insurance payments, the feds say. The insurers paid him a total of $178,000 on those claims.

Also, Alphas allegedly threatened an employee at one of his vendors to "shut his [expletive] mouth" about bogus invoices when he learned about the insurance investigation.

Judge Douglas P. Woodlock added three months to Alphas's originally planned 12-month sentence when, after he pleaded guilty, Alphas had indicated he had never been convicted of a federal crime in a license application to the US Department of Agriculture, the US Attorney's office reports.