MONTGOMERY, March
31, 2017 – A Mobile County grand jury returned an indictment on March 24
charging a Mobile County convenience store owner with 28 counts of failure to
collect, report and pay sales tax, and eight counts of willful failure to file
corporate and individual income tax returns. Anil Patel was arrested on March
30 by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Department.
According to
the allegations in the indictment, Patel, the president and sole corporate
officer of Jai Maatadee Inc., owner and operator of four convenience stores in the
Mobile area, filed false sales tax returns with the Alabama Department of
Revenue during the periods of September 2011 through 2013, thereby evading
payment of sales tax in excess of $1 million. It is also alleged that Patel
willfully failed to file corporate and individual income tax returns.
“The Department
is leveraging technology and industry insiders to combat tax evasion committed
by convenience store owners. This is a significant problem and costs the
taxpayers of Alabama millions of dollars every year,” said Revenue Commissioner
Julie P. Magee. “If you are a convenience store owner and think you can thwart
reporting your true and accurate tax liability, your day of reckoning is here.
You will be caught and prosecuted. We are also working with members of the
legislature to evaluate and adopt new laws designed to stop this growing
problem. The days of store owners giving themselves a raise on the backs of
Alabama’s taxpayers are over.”
If convicted,
Patel faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison and a possible
fine of $10,000 for each felony and one year in prison and payment of the cost
of prosecution for each misdemeanor. Patel faces 148 years in prison, payment
of the outstanding taxes and interest, and criminally imposed fines totaling at
least $280,000.
Patel is being
held in the Mobile Metro Jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond.
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Media contact for more information:
ADOR
Communications/Publications Division
Frank.miles@revenue.alabama.gov
Amanda.collier@revenue.alabama.gov
Telephone:
334-242-1390; FAX: 334-242-0550
Website:
http://www.revenue.alabama.gov/