Owner of Massachusetts landscaping business facing prison after not reporting $1.5 million in income

BOSTON – The owner of a residential and commercial landscaping business operating in the South Shore area has been charged and has agreed to plead guilty in connection with his failure to report approximately $1.5 million in income to the Internal Revenue Service.

Scott Herzog, 47, of Norwell, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of filing a false tax return. A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled by the Court.

According to the charging document, Herzog owned and operated Herzog Landscape Solutions. From 2016 through 2018, Herzog allegedly directed landscaping customers to pay him personally for jobs and then cashed many of these payments or deposited them into bank accounts unaffiliated with the landscaping business. Herzog then failed to report approximately $1.5 million in these receipts in the tax returns his tax preparer filed on his behalf. As a result of this alleged conduct, Herzog underreported his personal income tax obligations, causing a loss to the Internal Revenue Service of nearly $500,000.

The charge of filing a false tax return provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $100,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Holcomb of Rollins’ Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.