RI Man Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison For Tax Evasion

PROVIDENCE, RI — A Rhode Island man was sentenced to three years in prison Friday for tax evasion, said U.S. Attorney Aaron L. Weisman in a news release.

Billie R. Schofield, who partly owned and worked for Northern Pelagic LLC, a seafood processing business in New Bedford, Massachusetts, attempted to evade his federal income taxes for over 10 years, according to court documents.

Although Schofield was earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in income, he failed to pay taxes and stopped filing income tax returns starting in 2009, said the news release.

According to Weisman, Schofield also obstructed IRS collection efforts between 2008 and 2018 by "filing fraudulent forms, advancing frivolous tax arguments, creating and using a nominee entity and bank account, negotiating income checks to cash, and creating and submitting fraudulent checks to the IRS."

Schofield's tax evasion caused a tax loss of more than $350,000 to the United States, said the release.

In addition to a three-year prison sentence, Schofield was sentenced to three years of supervised release, a $5,000 fine, and was ordered to pay $364,200.22 in restitution to the IRS.