BOSTON – A Beverly Farms man was charged today in a 13-count indictment in connection with a payroll scheme involving underreporting of overtime hours for his union employees and failing to collect and pay payroll taxes.
Frank Loconte, 61, was indicted on four counts of mail fraud, one count of theft or embezzlement from an employee benefit plan, four counts of making false statements pertaining to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and four counts of willful failure to collect and pay taxes. Loconte will appear in federal court in Boston today at 3:30 p.m.
According to the indictment, from 2009 to 2022, Loconte was the president of NER Construction Management Corporation, a Wilmington-based construction company that employed union workers. Loconte was also the president of the company’s employment management company, NER Management LLC. Loconte was responsible for collective bargaining with multiple unions, including the Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen Local Union No. 3 and various local unions affiliated with the Massachusetts and Northern New England Laborers’ District Council of the Laborers International Union of North America. On behalf of NER, Loconte was bound by collective bargaining agreements with the unions which governed the transfer of worker benefit contributions to employee welfare and pension benefit plans, each of which was subject to ERISA provisions. As a result, NER was required to make periodic contributions to the benefit…
