Two Chicago-area accountants were sentenced Friday to two years of probation each after pleading guilty to helping eight gas station owners underreport their sales to avoid paying more than $5 million in sales taxes.
Naveed Ahmed and his brother, Asif Waheed, pleaded guilty in Cook County Circuit Court to wire fraud, mail fraud and to preparing fraudulent Illinois tax returns on behalf of station owners in Chicago, Cicero, Homewood and Joliet from December 2007 through February 2009.
The probation sentence was given on the condition that Ahmed and Waheed continue to cooperate with authorities in ongoing Department of Revenue and Attorney General’s office investigations into sales tax fraud among gas station owners and other clients.
Officials said their ongoing investigation into gas station owners has recouped nearly $75 million in back sales taxes, interest and penalties, up from $54 million in September 2011.
Ahmed, 42, of Arlington Heights is a certified public accountant and owner of Midwest Financial Services, which has offices in Chicago and Arlington Heights, according to a press release from Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office, which prosecuted the cases. Waheed, 38, of Chicago, is an accountant who works for Midwest, which has been in business since the 1990s.
The firm “was known” among gas station owners for aiding gas station owners in their efforts to their lower their tax bills, serving as the accountant for several of the “most egregious” tax evaders, according to the Attorney General’s office. The gas station owners Ahmed and Waheed worked for have pleaded guilty previously and repaid the state more than $5 million, according to the Attorney General’s office.
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Copyright 2013 – Chicago Tribune
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Tags: Income Tax, Sales Tax
