Brian Kobus, Tax Evasion, Massachusetts 2024

Brian Kobus, a 49-year-old commercial fisherman from Durham, Connecticut, has been sentenced to prison for evading taxes on over $1.4 million in income earned from commercial fishing in Massachusetts.

Kobus was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to one year and one day in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the United States of $377,839.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston announced that Kobus pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion in July 2024. The charges stem from Kobus’s failure to file a federal income tax return or pay taxes on his earnings between 2011 and 2013 and between 2017 and 2021.

Kobus worked as a commercial fisherman and deckhand for various fishing companies in Massachusetts for over 30 years, earning over $1.4 million in taxable income. Despite being paid by check, Kobus intentionally cashed each paycheck and paid for all of his personal expenses in cash, concealing his income from the IRS.

The tax loss to the IRS was approximately $377,839.90, and Kobus was ordered to pay restitution for this amount.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the IRS’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, made the announcement.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor Wild of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit and Trial Attorney Matthew L. Cofer of the Justice Department’s Tax Division prosecuted the case.