Posted on 10/06/2010 8:06:09 PM PDT by dennisw
State authorities in Miami on Wednesday announced the arrest of nearly two dozen convenience store and gas station owners, who allegedly ran an organized ring of tax evasion.
The 23 people arrested included alleged ringleaders Mohammed Dinaj Khan and Manzural Islam, and their bookkeeper, Jenny Cosme.
Other individuals named in the arrest affidavit are Pervin Begam, Jharna Khan (aka Nilufar Akther), Farzana Karim, Bhuiyan R. Lutfar, Abdulla Hassan, Mohammad A. Samad, Banu Khanam, Rana M. Khan, Sudhir Chandra Nath, Jalal Ahmed, Lutfa Begum, Johni Puthusseril, Siraj Miah, Mohamed Nazmul Alam, Syeda L. Alam, MD Hamidur Rahman, Matiur R. Khan, Mohammad Sohid, Dipock Dave Nath and Abdul Mageed Ansari.
The business owners allegedly reported low sales revenue on federal and state tax returns, while also reporting an unusually high percentage of sales from items that were supposedly exempt from Florida sales tax, according to the office of Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
According to an arrest affidavit from Rundle’s office, the defendants in the case used Deerfield Beach-based American Investment, a company run by Dinaj Khan, to collect and filter the business data from businesses throughout the state. American Investment sometimes did business as Team Management, the affidavit said.
Rundle’s office called the bust “a massive roundup spanning multiple counties throughout Florida.”
The affidavit said the scheme spanned 20 years – from 1990 to 2010 – during which time Khan and Manzural and other conspirators used fictitious names – including “Fatima Nahid” – to register more than 118 corporate entities.
According to the affidavit, records showed that one of the store locations, Aziz Petroleum, prepared sales records based on only one cash register. Even though the store was charging customers sales tax on the second register, it was not reported or remitted to the state.
The affidavit said Cosme performed accounting work for the companies under various company names, including Exquisite Accounting and Business Services of Delray Beach.
Attempts to reach someone at American Investment or at Exquisite Accounting were not successful. No phone number could be located for American Investment, while an answering machine at Exquisite Accounting said the voice mailbox was full. An employee who answered the phone at Aziz Petroleum said he was only an employee and knew nothing about the arrests.
The 23 defendants were charged with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, tax evasion, theft of state funds, false and fraudulent return, aggravated white-collar crime, making a false representation to avoid or reduce contribution, and willful and fraudulent acts regarding corporate tax.
lots of muslim sounding names in that article. hm.
Yup, no Penna. Dutch names there.
You mean cash businesses weren’t paying all their taxes? I’m shocked.
My thoughts exactly.
We had some business financing the Asian businessmen. The problem was that none of their tax returns showed a profit. They were all fiddling their taxes and were showing losses most years. So now you know why all those Asian’s are running the convenience stores, gas stations, liquor stores, dry cleaners and laundramats..cash versus register sales.
Kwiki Mart Owners of Peace...
I wonder how many computers they got? :)
This is why a Fair Tax will be a nightmare. Imagine if they were collecting over 20% - in cash - at the point of sale?
That much cash will attract tax evasion schemes more sophisticated by several orders of magnitude.
“lots of muslim sounding names in that article. hm.”
They are obviously taking over the convenience store business
everywhere.
Before I left the USSA in 2004, they had much of Memphis, and out into the countryside of west Tennessee.
I never understood it.
Amish?
These people are used to a black market economy and they just continue their tax skimming when they come to this country.
Those crazy Amish.
Meanwhile, in MA., dem. John Tierney is running for reelection to Congress. This afternoon, his wife was in court facing numerous felony charges. More than seven million dollars in a bank account in her name, which John claims he knew nothing about. Right. Her defense? She did it for the children and her ailing mother. Didn’t pay federal taxes on it, either. Tsk, tsk.
More here. If FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) did the investigation, based on the article they did, then these crooks are screwed. FDLE is good.
Kudos also to the Dade County State Attorney, she generally does a very good job. The Broward County and Palm Beach county DA’s are useless. Palm Beach harassed Rush.
I first saw that in 1983. Went into a Korean green grocer in NYC and the woman I was with insisted they ring up her purchase on the cash register instead of fishing change out of a cigar box under the counter. I was naive back then
It isn't just the Muhammads. Immigrants love cash businesses and they are all cheating on taxes. There! I said it!
I demand that they be turned loose. Clearly they are victims of social profiling. </sarc>
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