Topsfield Attorney Sentenced for Filing False Tax Returns

BOSTON – A Topsfield man was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Boston late yesterday for filing false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the course of four years.

John H. Molloy, Jr., 53, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr., to one year of probation and ordered to pay restitution of $332,019 to the IRS, a fine of $5,000, and complete 100 hours of community service.  In August 2016, Molloy pleaded guilty to four counts of filing false tax returns.

Molloy, an attorney, maintains offices in Jamaica Plain and Revere.  A substantial portion of Molloy’s law practice involved representing victims of automobile accidents.  From 2006 to 2009, Molloy deposited settlement checks from automobile insurers into his business accounts, but used these business accounts to pay personal expenses.  All of these funds were income to Molloy and should have been reported to the IRS; however, Molloy actively concealed almost

$1 million of income from the IRS over a four-year period.  When accountants asked Molloy which funds in his business accounts should be reported to the IRS, Molloy told them that substantial chunks of money were not income and did not need to reported—even though he knew this was untrue.  From 2006 to 2009, Molloy failed to report $979,341 of income to the IRS, failing to pay $332,019 in taxes. 

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Joel P. Garland, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston; and Anthony DiPaolo, Chief of Investigations of the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau, made the announcement.  Assistant U.S. Attorney David S. Schumacher of Ortiz’s Criminal Division prosecuted the case.