The former operator of six laundromats, including one in Central Massachusetts, has been found guilty for failure to file tax returns, Attorney General Maura Healey said Friday.
Steven Bankert, who once owned Laundry World in Attleboro, Brockton, Lawrence and Worcester, will be sentenced on Feb. 7.
Following a two-day trial in Worcester Superior Court, a jury convicted the 62-year-old North Attleboro resident on six counts of failing to file his taxes over six years.
This is not Bankert’s first brush with the law.
In 2017, he pled guilty to the theft of more than $200,000 worth of natural gas from Columbia Gas and NStar by tampering with meters. Prosecutors alleged the former licensed electrician tampered with 10 gas meters at his six laundromats between 2008 and 2012.
The Attorney General’s Office said authorities were tipped off to the theft by Columbia Gas.
Bankert was sentenced to a year in jail and four years probation on the charges. His sentenced has been stayed while he appealed the conviction. He had been previously convicted of stealing water from the Attleboro Water Department in 2008. That conviction was later overturned.
