Former Attorney Pleads Guilty to Filing False Returns

Former Attorney Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement and Tax Charges

Defendant used embezzled funds to pay for vehicle and Vermont vacation home

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

BOSTON — A former attorney pleaded guilty yesterday to wire fraud and filing false tax returns in connection with a long-running scheme to embezzle funds from trusts for which he served as trustee.

Kevin M. Brill, 61, of Newton, pleaded guilty to six counts of wire fraud and four counts of filing false tax returns. U.S. Senior District Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing for April 5, 2021.

From 2012 to July 2017, Brill served as a trustee for three family trusts with funds held at Morgan Stanley Bank. As trustee, Brill had fiduciary responsibilities to protect and preserve the funds of the trusts and make expenditures for the benefit of each beneficiary. As part of his embezzlement scheme, Brill created new accounts at Santander Bank through which he funneled funds he withdrew from the trust accounts. Over the course of the six-year scheme, Brill embezzled and misappropriated more than $600,000 from the various trusts and used the proceeds on personal expenses such as a personal vehicle, a vacation home in Vermont and to pay for his personal credit card expenses.

In addition, Brill failed to report his illegal income to the IRS, thereby avoiding payment of more than $169,000 that he owed in federal income taxes.

The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of filing false tax returns provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; and Joleen Simpson, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation in Boston made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor A. Wild of Lelling's Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.