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Boston cab mogul needed a ride to the federal courthouse today

Edward Tutunjian, one of the largest owners of Boston cab medallions, agreed to plead guilty to payroll tax evasion, employing illegal aliens and failing to pay overtime wages today and agreed to pay more than $2.3 million in fines and restitution, the US Attorney's office reports.

The Globe reports prosecutors are also asking for a prison term of at least two years.

According to the US Attorney's office:

Since approximately 1972, Tutunjian and EJT have operated the Boston Cab taxicab business in the greater Boston area. By 2014, Tutunjian and EJT owned approximately 372 taxi medallions – a government license permitting a car to be used to transport passengers for hire – which they leased to drivers and for which Tutunjian and EJT received millions of dollars in gross revenues each year, mostly in cash. Although the taxi drivers were self-employed, Tutunjian and EJT directly employed mechanics, dispatchers, office workers, and others. It is alleged that a number of those employees were undocumented aliens who, because of that status, were not authorized to work in the United States.

Tutunjian allegedly concealed the size of the company payroll from the IRS, and thereby concealed the amount of federal employment taxes he and EJT would be responsible for paying. He did this by paying employees entirely or partially in cash and keeping such cash payments off the books. By doing this, he ensured there would be no record of cash payments that could be inspected by the IRS. Employees who were illegal aliens, and therefore not authorized to work in the United States, were allegedly paid entirely in cash. EJT did not issue W-2 forms to those employees and did not withhold or pay federal income tax, Social Security tax, or Medicare tax with regard to those illegal alien employees.

Other employees who were citizens or permanent resident aliens received their wages partly in cash and partly by check. Tutunjian filed quarterly employment tax returns for EJT which did not include the amounts which had been paid in cash to EJT employees. In this way, EJT evaded, and aided and abetted its employees in evading, approximately $739,204 in taxes from 2009 to 2013.

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Comments

One small step above a sex trafficker.
Scum of the earth.

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but no, not on the level of sex trafficking at all. sheesh.

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So what happens to the hackney division cops that were watching all of this for years?

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Well... we expect that there is a hackney-Carriage Division in the police department, but the sad fact is that this is one of the lowest staffed divisions in all of Boston, and sad to say... this is often a place where some of our finest wind up after they have been taken off the streets either for cause or due to medical issues. It is essentially a desk job. There are no resources for them to truly enforce these things so when they can, they try to concentrate on the big fish.

In theory these people are also supposed to be stopping th e"gypsy cab" people that offer rides from shopping malls. That "industry" was well-established long before there was an uber or Lyft.

It is for this reason that the cab drivers themselves are asking for better regulation and protections for their jobs. They need this to protect them from the hacks like this as well as from ride share services.

Sort of funny now... I see adverts on buses for an auto rental and leasing service that is suggesting you lease and get in on Uber. It's funny because that is just hwo taxi companies operate; the driver leases the vehicle for the shift. Yet the public and lawmakers are just not grasping this.

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IRS or DOJ or FBI told BPD "We got this."

Or so I surmise...

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All good until the mayor's name is Marty?

Just a guess.

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I think they meant why aren't the feds going after the crooked cops which looked the other way for a decade or so and probably took a duckboat full of bribes.

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So this guy bilked millions upon millions from immigrants, cab drivers, the city, etc for 30 years. Then he gets caught and has to give up maybe 10% of what he gained from illegal activities? Even 2 years in jail hardly seems like a fitting punishment for living large for so long and he'll retire in comfort once he leaves whatever white collar lock-up he's sent to.

So here's the lesson kids: Cheat, lie, and deceive. Even if you get caught, it will be worth it.

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He should run for office. Worked for Curley and Clinton. Ton of RI and Chicago politicians too.

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This. He probably owns multiple houses in the US and overseas and drives really nice cars. $2.3 mil at this point is chump change. He's not the only one doing this, he's just the unlucky one to get caught. Unpaid overtime, cash payments, hiring people unauthorized to work in the US, and even having employees perform tasks at your private residences is more common than you think. Nobody ever complains for obvious reasons.

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