Contractor gets probation in tax evasion scheme

Federal court in Providence. Photo by Steve Klamkin WPRO News

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A contractor from Massachusetts who frequently traveled to Rhode Island to cash business checks at a check-cashing facility to avoid reporting or paying taxes on nearly $2 million in income has been sentenced to two years of probation, federal prosecutors said.

Richard Karski, 60, owner and operator of K.C.O. Builders, was also ordered on Tuesday to pay nearly $180,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, Zachary Cunha.

Karski frequented the Pawtucket check-cashing business to cash payments he had received from clients, then did not report the income to the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said.

From 2015 through 2018, he failed to declare any income or pay any taxes on almost $2 million in business and personal income, prosecutors said.

He pleaded guilty in October.

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