Rochester company cited for tax evasion, other charges

May 31, 2022

A grand jury has charged two men involved in a Rochester asphalt company for their connection in a scheme to conceal the company’s taxable sales by faking financial records to the state.

A Suffolk County Grand Jury had indicted two men connected to Rochester Bituminous Products. Mashpee resident and company founder Albert Todesca, 69, and the company’s former accountant, Deham resident Christopher Polito, 37, were the two men charged, Attorney General Maura Healy’s office announced in a press release.

The two men were indicted on various charges including tax evasion, delivering or disclosing false documents to the Department of Revenue, obstruction of the Department of Revenue’s administration, conspiracy to commit tax evasion, conspiracy to disclose false documents to the Department of Revenue, and conspiracy to obstruct the administration of tax laws.

The asphalt company was indicted on charges of tax evasion, giving false documents to the Department of Revenue and obstruction of the administration of tax laws.

An arraignment for the defendants will be held at a later date, the attorney general’s office said.

Rochester Bituminous Products is an asphalt company located at 83 Kings Highway. 

The attorney general’s office alleges that Todesca, who had no official title in the company, exercised control over the business and led a scheme to avoid sales taxes between 2011 and 2013. The two men, the office says, submitted many fake documents to the Department of Revenue from 2014 to 2017 in an attempt to obstruct a company audit.

“The AG’s Office specifically alleges that at the direction of Todesca, Polito altered the documents to falsely indicate sales were made to entities that were exempt from the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax,” the office said in a press release.

The investigation is still ongoing, and the indictments come after charges brought against Polito by the attorney general’s office in November. 

Earlier this year, the company was ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution and penalties over allegations they did not pay prevailing wages to employees on various public projects, including for the Town of Mattapoisett.