Construction company owner that avoided paying more than $1.7 million in taxes found guilty

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WLNE) — The United States Attorney’s Office District of Massachusetts said that the owner owner of a construction company doing business on the South Shore, Cape Cod, and in Rhode Island has agreed to plead guilty to a multi-year tax evasion and cash payroll scheme.

Christopher Pomavilla Minchala, of New Bedford, was charged with one count of tax evasion and one count of failure to pay over taxes.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that from 2017 to 2021, the 31-year-old cashed customer checks made out to his business, Rossy Construction Corporation, and did not deposit the receipts in his business bank accounts.

Minchala allegedly hid that he was cashing large amounts of checks from his tax preparer, and underreported his income on his tax returns.

This resulted in him failing to pay more than $1.1 million in federal income taxes.

The office added that Manchala also ran an unlawful cash payroll, which resulted in him failing to pay over to the IRS more than $670,000 in payroll taxes.