Melrose Man Admits To Being In Cahoots With Shady Seafood Execs: DOJ

MELROSE, MA — A local man who was in cahoots with a Gloucester seafood processing company pleaded guilty last week to federal charges of conspiring to defraud the IRS and to commit wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Michael Bruno, 62, the former principal of a Boston-area accounting firm, admitted Friday in federal court in Boston to conspiring with the former president and other executive at National Fish & Seafood, Inc. to defraud the company and its majority shareholder, and to avoid paying taxes on the proceeds.

Bruno, who was a member of the seafood processor’s board of directors, conspired with the company's president, head of operations, and a senior sales executive to divert money their way, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The conspirators made sure a temporary labor company, Continental Labor Team, would be retained, but Continental was in fact controlled by the seafood processor’s president. Furthermore, employees of the seafood processor recruited the temporary workers and dealt with their employment. So as Continental mad money from the company - its sole customer - those funds were deposited into accounts controlled by the president and distributed to the other two executives or corporate entities they controlled, the Department of Justice said.

Bruno's accounting firm prepared tax returns for the seafood processor, its president, and the corporate entities controlled by the other executives. He acknowledged conspiring with them to understate their income on federal tax returns, the DOJ said.

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