PEORIA, Ill. – A federal jury has convicted a former Peoria liquor store owner of trying to defraud the government out of tax revenue.
61-year-old Jalal Nimer Asad of Lindenhurst was found guilty Wednesday of 21 felony charges in two separate but related cases that include conspiracy to defraud the United States, tax evasion, and mail fraud.
Prosecutors testified that Asad was the leader of a group of people that owned and operated several convenience and liquor stores, including Peoria, which kept two sets of books.
One book kept true sales numbers while the other was false, in order to underreport earnings t and pay less in state and federal taxes.
Asad and his co-defendants were indicted in 2009, but Asad remained at-large overseas for 15 years until a recent return to the United States.
He will be sentenced in January, and faces up to 20 years in prison.
Comments