(USAO, MA) BOSTON – Edward J. Tutunjian, who has owned and operated Boston Cab for more than four decades, was charged today in U.S. District Court with payroll tax evasion, employing illegal aliens and with failing to pay overtime wages.

Tutunjian’s company, EJT Management, Inc., through which he operated Boston Cab, also was charged with defrauding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by enabling EJT employees to obtain federal housing subsidies to which they were not entitled.  Both Tutunjian and EJT have signed plea agreements in which they agree to make full restitution for their crimes, totaling more than $2.3 million.

Tutunjian, 66, of Belmont, was charged in an Information with five counts of tax evasion, one count of employing illegal aliens and one count of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act for failing to pay overtime wages.  EJT Management, Inc. was charged in the same Information with aiding and abetting the theft of public money.

Since approximately 1972, Tutunjian and EJT have operated the Boston Cab taxicab business in the greater Boston area.  By 2014, Tutunjian and EJT owned approximately 372 taxi medallions – a government license permitting a car to be used to transport passengers for hire – which they leased to drivers and for which Tutunjian and EJT received millions of dollars in gross revenues each year, mostly in cash.   Although the taxi drivers were self-employed, Tutunjian...