American Dream to Federal Prison: The Downfall of a Roofing Couple in a $2.2M Comp & Loan Scheme

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A Hopkinton husband and wife, who owned a Framingham-based roofing company, have been sentenced in federal court for orchestrating two separate, audacious fraud schemes. The first involved defrauding their workers’ compensation carrier of more than $627,000 by concealing payroll, while the second involved misusing a $2 million federal COVID-19 relief loan to purchase a luxury home.

On July 28, 2025, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani sentenced Ronaldo Solano, 52, to a term of one year and a day in federal prison. His wife, Adriana Solano, 41, was sentenced on June 23, 2025, to time served (one day).

Ronaldo Solano is scheduled to report to the Bureau of Prisons to begin his sentence by 2:00 p.m. on September 8, 2025.

In addition to their prison terms, Ronaldo Solano will serve two years of supervised release, with the first six months under home detention. Adriana Solano will serve 27 months of supervised release, with the first three months under home detention. The couple was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $2,253,547.91.

In January 2025, Ronaldo Solano pleaded guilty to four counts: conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, and wire fraud. Adriana Solano pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. A federal grand jury indicted the couple in March 2024. See Agency Checklists’ article of March 8, 2024, “Roofing Company Owners Accused of $627K Workers’ Comp Fraud and $2M COVID Relief Scam.”

The case presents a stark contrast between the government’s portrayal of a calculated, multi-year fraud and the defendants’ claims of being unsophisticated immigrants who made mistakes while pursuing the American dream.

The Workers’ Compensation Fraud: A Shell Game with Payroll

From approximately 2012 to 2020, Ronaldo Solano operated a roofing and construction business under various names, including H&R Roofing & Construction Inc. and H&R Roofing & Siding Corp.. While Ronaldo managed sales and job sites, Adriana handled the company’s bookkeeping and payroll.

According to the government’s sentencing memorandum, the couple engaged in a systematic scheme to illegally minimize their workers’ compensation insurance premiums. Massachusetts law requires such insurance for businesses, especially in a dangerous industry like roofing, but the Solanos went to great lengths to hide the true size of their workforce and payroll from their insurance carrier.

The prosecution detailed their methods:

• Concealing Employees: Ronaldo Solano falsely told their insurer that H&R Roofing & Construction had no employees, providing tax forms and bank statements for that entity that showed no payroll. In reality, they paid their workers out of a bank account for a different entity, H&R Roofing & Siding.
• Using a Shell Company: The Solanos funneled over $2.1 million to a shell company called Target Roofing between 2015 and 2017. This company had almost no legitimate business operations and was used to pay H&R’s laborers, making it appear as if H&R was paying a subcontractor rather than its own employees. Investigators found that former workers paid by Target Roofing had never even heard of the company and were hired directly by Ronaldo Solano.
• Misclassifying Workers: Even after their original policy was canceled for suspected fraud in 2018, Ronaldo Solano continued the deception. He obtained new policies but reported employing only low-risk sales and clerical workers, concealing the high-risk roofers who were actually performing the labor.

The government argued this conduct was not a mistake but a “sophisticated means” to defraud. They pointed to the use of the shell company, which was also used to pay for personal expenses like the Solanos’ son’s soccer club and gym memberships for the family. Through this scheme, the Solanos avoided paying at least $627,675.88 in workers’ compensation premiums.

CARES Act Fraud: A $2 Million SBA Business Loan Goes into a Luxury Home

The second scheme involved the Solanos’ misuse of funds from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. In September 2021, the Solanos applied for and received a $2 million Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) on behalf of their business. These loans were offered by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to help companies cover legitimate ongoing expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Solanos signed a loan agreement for their company, explicitly promising to use the funds for working capital and other eligible business expenses.

What they did instead, prosecutors said, was a classic case of personal enrichment. The government laid out a damning timeline:

• February 14, 2022: The Solanos sign the EIDL agreement with the SBA.
• February 15, 2022: The very next day, Ronaldo Solano signs an offer to purchase a five-bedroom, 6,400-square-foot luxury home in Hopkinton for $1.7 million.
• February 18, 2022: The couple transfers $1 million of the EIDL funds into their personal bank account.
• April 2022: The Solanos use over $825,000 of the taxpayer-funded EIDL money for the down payment on the Hopkinton home.

To secure a mortgage for the remaining balance, the couple defrauded their lender by falsely representing that the nearly $1 million in their personal account was a personal asset, not a loan they were obligated to repay.

Sentencing: Two Competing Narratives

At sentencing, the defense and prosecution painted vastly different pictures of the Solanos.

The defense, supported by dozens of letters from family, friends, and community members, portrayed the Solanos as the embodiment of the “American Dream.” Their lawyers argued that Ronaldo, who left school in Costa Rica in the sixth grade after his father’s death, and Adriana, who came to the U.S. at 17, built their business through sheer hard work, not criminal sophistication. They contended the financial missteps were born of inexperience, not greed, and noted that the couple began repaying the EIDL funds as soon as their accountant highlighted the error.

The government flatly rejected this narrative. Prosecutors argued the crimes were motivated by “greed and the desire to take a further competitive advantage over others”. They maintained that the decade-long workers’ compensation scheme and the brazen misuse of COVID-19 relief funds required a sentence of imprisonment to deter others. “A sentence of imprisonment promotes voluntary compliance by making clear that there are consequences for hiding employee payroll from insurance carriers,” the U.S. Attorney’s office wrote.

Ultimately, Judge Talwani’s sentences for Ronaldo and Adriana Solano landed between the government’s recommendations and the defense’s pleas for no prison time, penalizing the conduct while seemingly acknowledging the defendants’ backgrounds and lack of prior criminal history. The Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts provided valuable assistance in the investigation.

The Prosecution Team

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; and Christopher Algieri, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Field Office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, made the announcement of the Solanos’ sentencing. The Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts provided valuable assistance to the U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding the investigation of the workers’ compensation fraud. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen A. Kearney of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case against the Solanos.