Scrap Company Owners Plead Guilty to Tax Charges

Two officers of Kradin Metal Co., a scrap metal company located in Canton, Mass., pleaded guilty in federal court to subscribing to false income tax returns.

Richard Kradin and Robert Kradin pleaded guilty before a U.S. District Judge to subscribing to false individual and corporate U.S. income tax returns for the years 1996-1999.

At the plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that had the case proceeded to trial, the government's evidence would have proven that the two men are each 50 percent owners of Kradin Metal Co. The case claimed that as owners the two men sold significant quantities of scrap metal to another Massachusetts firm which then paid for the material by means of checks made payable to fictitious payees. The two men then used the proceeds for their own purposes rather than depositing the funds in the accounts of the scrap metal company. The two Kradins did not report the income on their personal income tax returns for the same time period.

Each of the defendants faces a maximum sentence of 3 years in prison, to be followed by 1 year of supervised release, and a $100,000 fine.