Former executive from Marlborough sentenced to two years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the IRS and obstruction of justice

Date: April 7, 2026

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Boston - A former accounting and real estate executive in Sudbury was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for a multi-year scheme to cheat the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by getting paid more than $1.6 million in compensation and fringe benefits under the table, all while lying to the U.S. Attorney's Office about his income to avoid paying restitution he owed to victims of an earlier fraud scheme.

Stephen L. Hochberg of Marlborough was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin to two years in prison, to be followed by three years supervised release. Hochberg was also ordered to pay $2,888,288 in restitution to the IRS, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as to victims of his prior crimes of securities and wire fraud. In January 2026, Hochberg pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and to obstruction of justice. Hochberg was charged in Dec. 2025.

Hochberg and Charles D. Katz, the owner of a Sudbury accounting firm and a real estate company, agreed as early as 2014 to cheat the IRS. They agreed that Hochberg, who served as the Director of Corporate Services at Katz's accounting firm and as Chief Operating Officer at Katz's real estate firm, would be paid significant compensation off the books so that Hochberg would have tax-free income and so that Katz's firms - CD Katz LLC and Gebsco Realty Corporation - would owe less employment taxes. Over time, Katz paid Hochberg's family, provided rent-free housing to Hochberg's ex-wife, paid college tuition for his children and paid personal expenses that Hochberg and his ex-wife charged on corporate credit cards.

All told, Katz paid Hochberg at least $1,668,487 in unreported income and avoided taxes of at least $835,105.

In 2008, 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. In addition to his and Katz's tax scheme, Hochberg lied to the U.S. Attorney's Office 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 Oct. 2025. The Court accepted his plea and scheduled a sentencing hearing for April 29, 2026.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Thomas Demeo, Special Agent in Charge of Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation in Boston; and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carol E. Head, Chief of the Asset Recovery Unit prosecuted the case.

IRS-CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. It is the only federal law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. IRS-CI has 18 field offices located across the U.S. and maintains an international presence through attaché posts abroad.