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Gas Station Owners Charged With Tax Exasion
Six Illinois gas station owners have been indicted for tax evasion.

An investigation by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the Illinois Department of Revenue found those gas station owners in Cook, Peoria and Tazewell counties were under-reporting the amount of sales to the state and were pocketing state sales taxes.

It's not the first time gas stations have been caught not paying up. Madigan says since investigations began in 2008, $12.7 million has been recovered from 66 gas station owners across the state.

"Tax evaders, those who have broken the law, will not be tolerated," Madigan said. "These indictments are the first in a wave of our ongoing investigations."

Once the fraud was discovered, those six gas station owners were given a chance to amend their tax returns. Madigan says it was in no way an amnesty and the indictments announced Thursday prove that.

Sales tax fraud is a Class 3 Felony, which can carry a prison sentence of two to five years.

The six indicted gas station owners are:

Muzaffar Jameel of Harwood Heights
Joy Chemmachel of Skokie
John Kottoor of Orland Park
Joy Kottoor of Morton Grove
Abdelmomen Abdallah of Peoria
Dineshbhai Patel of Morton

(Illinois Radio Network)
08 20 10 by Newsroom
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