Former CFO of Manufacturing Company Sentenced for Mail Fraud and Tax Charges

BOSTON – A Hull man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston in connection with a long-running scheme to defraud the company for which he served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Robert A. Saltzberg, 69, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs to 24 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of $1,360,000 to the victim and $342,000 to the IRS. In February 2019, Saltzberg pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and five counts of filing false tax returns.

From 1998 through 2014, Saltzberg was the CFO of a precision metal fabrication company in Franklin, of which he was a 50% co-owner. As CFO, Saltzberg was responsible for day-to-day accounting and finance operations. He also maintained complete control over the company’s financial activities, including preparing and maintaining the company books, records, and financial statements. 

From 2005 to 2015, Saltzberg used his position as CFO to embezzle more than $1 million from the company by writing company checks to himself and to creditors to pay personal expenses, and then fraudulently recording the expenditures as business expenses on the company’s books.

In addition, the company’s tax preparer unknowingly relied upon the false bookkeeping information from Saltzberg to prepare the corporate tax returns. From 2005 through 2014, Saltzberg caused false expenses to be reported on the corporate returns, resulting in a lower reported company net income. Furthermore, because the company is an S-Corporation, and its net income passes through to its shareholders, the understated net income subsequently understated Saltzberg’s personal income as reported on his tax returns in those years. As a result, Saltzberg evaded paying more than $300,000 in federal taxes.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Kristina O’Connell, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston; and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor A. Wild of Lelling’s Securities and Financial Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.