Former Town Administrator for Nahant and Saugus Pleads Guilty to Filing False Tax Returns

BOSTON – A Nahant man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with failing to report over $375,000 of his income on his federal tax returns from 2010 to 2013.

Andrew R. Bisignani, 70, pleaded guilty to four counts of filing false tax returns.  U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin scheduled sentencing for Feb. 14, 2017. 

Bisignani, the former town administrator of Nahant and Saugus, admitted that from 2010 to 2013, he collected rental income from three real properties in Revere, Mass.  During the same years, Bisignani collected interest and loan income by making multiple, private, short-term loans that were secured by Massachusetts real estate.  Bisignani underreported his total rental real estate income when submitting his individual tax returns to the IRS in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.  He also underreported the interest income he received in connection with his private loans for 2010, 2011 and 2012.

The charging statute provides for a sentence of no greater than three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $100,000.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Joel P. Garland, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston; and Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristina E. Barclay of Ortiz’s Public Corruption Unit is prosecuting the case.