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The government said Vuong, between two agencies, Prime Labor LLC and UT Services Inc., paid millions in under-the-table cash wages to workers.
WORCESTER — A former Millbury woman who played a minor role in a scheme in which her husband and son used their plumbing business as a front for a large marijuana grow avoided a jail sentence Wednesday in federal court. Andrea Laverty, 64, whose son Thomas Laverty was sentenced to 12 years in connection with the crime Tuesday, was ordered to serve one year of home confinement after she apologized and noted she will now be the prime caretaker for her grandson. “I understand my actions were wrong,” she told Judge Timothy S. Hillman in U.S. District Court in Worcester, where both her ...
WORCESTER — Thomas Laverty, the local plumber convicted last year of using his business as a front for a large marijuana grow while collecting public assistance, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Tuesday. Laverty, 40, was convicted by a federal jury in Worcester last January on allegations he and his father, Charles Laverty, used their Millbury plumbing business, Chuck Laverty & Son, as a front for a huge illegal marijuana grow. Over the course of the trial, jurors heard evidence regarding a sophisticated grow operation the Lavertys set up at a warehouse near Thomas Laverty’s...
Man who used plumbing business as front for marijuana grow gets 12 years Brad Petrishen, Telegram & Gazette © Rick Cinclair/Telegram & Gazette Staff WORCESTER - Thomas Laverty outside the Harold D. Donohue Federal Building during a break in his U.S. District Court trial in January 2020. WORCESTER — Thomas Laverty, the local plumber convicted last year of using his business as a front for a large marijuana grow while collecting public assistance, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Tuesday. Laverty, 40, was convicted by a federal jury in Worcester last January on...
Paying employees in cash allows an employer to skirt payroll taxes owed the government, as well as bilk insurance companies who set premiums based on a fraudulently claiming a low number of employees. Assistant U.S. Attorney William F. Abely II said Tuesday that Vuong, while on probation for the AG charges, continued the same scheme by paying Lopez to front another temporary staffing company he created. Vuong was prohibited from controlling a staffing agency following his conviction, Abely said, and paid Lopez to act as the “nominal owner” of the business, Prime Labor, while Vuong pul...