January 15, 2003

PRESS RELEASE

DUNKIN' DONUT OWNER SENTENCED FOR TAX FRAUD

Boston, MA... The owner of several Dunkin' Donuts franchises was sentenced yesterday in federal court on tax charges.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Joseph A. Galasso, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, announced today that DINART SERPA, age 44, of 4 Ashton Way, Beverly, Massachusetts, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge William G. Young to four months' incarceration, to be followed by1 year of supervised release.

At an earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that had the case proceeded to trial, the evidence would have proven that SERPA owned four Dunkin' Donut shops in Beverly, Ipswich, and Rowley. From 1995 to 1997, SERPA participated in a kickback and false invoicing scheme with West Lynn Creamery ("WLC") in which he was able to choose among inflated prices that he wanted to pay to WLC for cream and other dairy products. WLC then "rebated" the difference between the inflated invoice price and the real price of goods back to SERPA in the form of checks made payable to his franchises. SERPA diverted more than $288,000 in rebate monies, converted them to personal use, and failed to report the monies as income to the IRS.

The case was investigated by Special Agents of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Freniere in Sullivan's Economic Crimes Unit.

Press Contact: Samantha Martin, (617) 748-3139