BOSTON — A former Massachusetts accounting and real estate executive was sentenced Tuesday after being found guilty of cheating the IRS out of over $1 million for years.
Stephen Hochberg, 78, of Marlborough, was sentenced to two years in prison after agreeing to plead guilty to perpetrating a multi-year scheme to defraud the government.
Hochberg, an accounting and real estate executive in Sudbury, and his business partner, Charles Katz, agreed as early as 2014 to cheat the IR, according to US Attorney Leah Foley’s office.
Hochberg served as the Director of Corporate Services at Katz’s accounting firm and as Chief Operating Officer at Katz’s real estate firm.
The two business partners allegedly concocted a scheme to pay Hochberg a significant amount off the books. In return, Katz’s firms – CD Katz LLC and Gebsco Realty Corporation – would owe less in employment taxes.
Katz paid Hochberg at least $1,668,487 in unreported income and avoided taxes of at least $835,105, according to Foley’s office.
Hochberg was convicted of eight counts of wire fraud and nine counts of securities fraud, for which he was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,791,500 to his victims.
Foley’s office says Hochberg lied to the government about his income from Katz’s firms and obstructed the collection of restitution Hochberg owed to victims.
Katz was charged and agreed to plead guilty in October 2025. He will be sentenced on April 29.
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