Swampscott Man Charged With Tax Fraud, Witness Tampering

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — A Swampscott man was one of two men charged with federal tax fraud on Thursday in what the U.S. District Attorney's office said was a scheme to falsify tax returns from those in the Congolese community and divert a portion of the money to accounts they controlled.

Boris Shadari, 44, of Swampscott, and Christian Zynga, 45, of Everett, were both indicted on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Shadari was also charged with three counts of filing a false tax return, three counts of aiding or assisting in filing a false tax return, two counts of theft of government funds, five counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of witness tampering.

Court documents said that over a five-year span starting in 2012, Shadari targeted the Congolese community and took customers' tax information to a tax preparation company, providing false information about dependents, child care expenses and business income and losses to inflate the amount of a return. The U.S. Attorney's office said Shadari and Zynga then arranged the refunds to be split between the customers' accounts and accounts they and their co-conspirators controlled.

Court documents said after 2017, Shadari prepared the returns himself and added false information to the returns to inflate refunds. He is also accused of failing to report the income he received from the scheme on his own tax returns.

The tax fraud and identity theft charges allow for sentences up to between two and 10 years in prison. The charge of witness tampering allows for a sentence up to 20 years in prison.

The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.