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Hopkinton man sentenced to prison for committing fraud with pandemic aid

by | Jul 29, 2025 | Featured: News, News

A Hopkinton man who operated a roofing and construction company in Framingham with his wife was sentenced Monday in federal court in Boston for his efforts to defraud their workers’ compensation insurance carriers, the Small Business Administration (SBA) and their mortgage lender. In one instance, the couple used pandemic-related economic assistance toward the purchase of a Hopkinton home.

Ronaldo Solano, 52, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to one year and one day in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release. He will serve his first six months on home detention.

His wife, Adriana Solano, 41, was sentenced on June 23 to time served  — one day — followed by 27 months of supervised release. The first three months of her sentence are being served on home detention.

Ronaldo and Adriana Solano were ordered to pay $1,625,872.03 jointly in restitution. Also, Ronaldo Solano was ordered separately to pay an additional $627,675.88 in restitution.

In January, Ronaldo Solano pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud. At that time, Adriana Solano pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. The couple was indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2024 on multiple counts of fraud.

The initial charges stemmed from financial activity that occurred between about 2012 and 2020 at the Framingham-based roofing and construction company the Solanos operated. Under the names H&R Roofing & Construction Inc. and H&R Roofing & Siding Corp., they avoided more than $627,000 in workers’ compensation insurance premiums by underreporting payroll and paying workers through an uninsured third company.

Funds used for Hopkinton home

Separately, in 2021 and/or 2022, Ronaldo and Adriana Solano submitted a loan application on behalf of H&R Roofing & Siding Corp. to the SBA under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program. The EIDL Program provided for pandemic relief under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act was enacted on March 29, 2020, to provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans impacted by the pandemic.

In this application, Ronaldo and Adriana Solano requested $2 million in relief funds for working capital and other eligible business expenses. After receiving the relief funds, they transferred $1 million of the funds to a personal bank account they shared. From this account, they used more than $825,000 for a down payment toward a luxury home in Hopkinton. They also borrowed another $770,500 from a mortgage lender to fund the purchase of this home. But they did not disclose to their lender that they were claiming $1 million of the EIDL funds as an asset and using it for the down payment.

According to public records, the Solanos purchased a home at 35 Wedgewood Drive, in the Highland Park neighborhood, in April of 2022 for $1.7 million.

Multiple federal agencies worked jointly during the investigation, assisted by the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts. Additionally, this case was investigated in connection with the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) Fraud Task Force. Established to promote transparency and coordinate oversight of the federal government’s COVID-19 pandemic response, the PRAC brings together federal agents from 20 agency Inspectors General to detect fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement in the more than $5 trillion in authorized COVID-19 funds.

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