A staffing firm owner was sentenced Tuesday to 78 months in prison for paying more than $40 million in cash wages to avoid taxes and workers' comp premiums, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts reported. The staffing firm owner, Aimee King McElroy of North Dartmouth MA, also must pay $9.1 million in restitution.

King McElroy and her husband, Daniel McElroy, were convicted during a trial in February of conspiring to defraud the IRS and their workers' comp insurers, mail fraud and procuring false payroll tax returns, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. King McElroy's husband was sentenced in July to 108 months in prison and also ordered to pay restitution.

The McElroys operated a temporary agency in Taunton MA, and later in Easton MA. It operated under the names of the Dan Agency, the Daily Agency, Daily A. King Laborer Inc., Pro Temp Company, PTC and Precission Temp Corp. The U.S. Attorney's Office called it the largest under-the-table payroll scheme ever prosecuted in Massachusetts.