A federal judge in Michigan has sentenced a Detroit gas station operator and his bookkeeper to prison for tax fraud. Gas station operator Elsayed Kazem Tom Safiedine received a 21-month prison term and Mary Fawaz received 12 months and one day in prison.
According to evidence, Safiedine was an officer and member of multiple business entities that operated and leased gasoline stations in the Detroit area. Fawaz was an officer of JSC Corp., a business operated by Safiedine, and also served as a bookkeeper and office manager for several of Safiedine’s businesses. Authorities accuse Safiedine and Fawaz of arranging for third parties to negotiate checks totaling $845,000 from Sunoco Inc. made payable to JSC Corp. The checks were not properly reported to the accountant for JSC Corp. and were excluded from income on JSC’s corporate tax returns filed with the IRS.
Safiedine and Fawaz were also accused of underreporting sales at one gas station by $175,000, which resulted in lower income on the tax return for MTK and KLC Partnership, the entity that owned the station. (Donna Harris, OPIS: www.opisnet.com)
