Former Brookline Resident Convicted in Kickback Scheme

February 18, 2010 - BOSTON, MA—A former Brookline resident was convicted today in U.S. District Court of receiving kickbacks in a scheme to defraud Dunkin' Brands, Inc., as well as filing false tax returns.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Office; and Susan Dukes, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation - Boston Field Office, announced today that CAROLYN KRAVETZ, age 43, pled guilty before the Honorable Joseph L. Tauro in United States District Court to an eight-count Indictment charging KRAVETZ with mail fraud and subscribing false tax returns.

From approximately September 2004 through November 2005, during which time KRAVETZ was employed as the Director of External Communications for Dunkin' Brands, Inc., KRAVETZ devised a scheme to defraud her employer by steering multiple projects to her co-defendant and long-time friend, Boris Levitin. KRAVETZ used her position to approve payments to Levitin totaling $396,875, in exchange for Levitin's kicking back half of that amount to KRAVETZ. KRAVETZ further failed to include the kickback amounts in the federal income tax returns she prepared and filed for the years 2004 and 2005.

Judge Tauro scheduled sentencing for June 2, 2010. KRAVETZ faces up to 20 years' imprisonment for each count of mail fraud and three years' imprisonment for each count of subscribing a false tax return, to be followed by up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $793,750.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vassili Thomadakis and Jonathan Mitchell of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit.