Today in U.S. District Court, Kent Pecoy, 66, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and to making false statements to a federally insured institution.
Pecoy owned and operated Kent Pecoy & Sons, Construction, Inc. in West Springfield. The company specialized in building luxury homes in western Massachusetts.
Pecoy’s company built two luxury homes for Kevin Kennedy in East Longmeadow.
According to a press release from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office:
From 2009 through 2016, Pecoy conspired with others to conceal income from the IRS by dealing in cash. Specifically, Pecoy received $1,116,900 in cash payments from Kennedy for the purchase and construction of custom-built homes in East Longmeadow and on Cape Cod. Kent Pecoy failed to deposit most of the cash into business bank accounts, and instead distributed the cash directly to vendors and subcontractors. For the payments Kent Pecoy did deposit, he deposited the cash in amounts less than $10,000 to avoid the filing of currency transaction reports.
Kent Pecoy also created and maintained separate ledgers documenting Kennedy’s cash payments, created and maintained false contracts and cover sheets and created false entries in KPSC’s accounting system to conceal the cash payments.
Additionally, in January 2010, Kent Pecoy and Kennedy made false statements to Charles Schwab Bank on a loan to Kennedy and his wife for the construction of a residence in East Longmeadow in an attempt to conceal $160,000 cash down payment. These false statements included understating the sale price of the residence lot, the price of the construction and the deposit and earnest money paid by Kennedy.
Pecoy’s sentencing will take place on August 20, 2024. He could receive a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison.