The co-owner of a Mattapan plumbing and heating contractor was convicted Monday in federal court in Boston of falsifying his company’s tax returns in a scheme in which he used millions of dollars in unreported business income to buy gold and silver bullion, federal officials said.

Claudio Poles, 78, of Dorchester, co-owner of Economy Plumbing and Heating Supply Company, was sentenced to four months in prison with one year of probation after pleading guilty in May to four counts of filing false tax returns, Acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua S. Levy said in a statement. He was also ordered to pay a $200,000 fine and $2.9 million in restitution.

Poles did not accurately disclose his company’s gross receipts to the tax preparer, Levy said. As a result, the tax preparer filled out Poles’ tax returns with false information he had given them.

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Poles used some of the unreported gross proceeds to purchase over $10 million worth of gold and silver bullion for himself from precious metals dealers – companies that buy and sell materials such as gold and silver, Levy added. To hide these purchases, which he made from his company’s bank accounts, he described them in the memo section of the checks as being for boilers, materials and other plumbing and heating items.

Between 2019 and 2022, Poles misreported losses on his personal tax returns and omitted personal income he earned from purchasing gold and silver bullion from his business, Levy said.