BOSTON – A Longmeadow man was sentenced Sept. 15, 2022 in federal court in Springfield on two counts of evading tobacco sales tax and operating an illegal check cashing business.
Satish Kumar, 67, was sentenced by US District Court Judge Mark. G. Mastroianni with one year of probation. In November 2015, Kumar pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. In the second case, Kumar pleaded guilty to one count of failing to register a money transmission business.
In 2006, Kumar bought a wholesale storage business in Berlin, Conn. Kumar systematically evaded Connecticut state tobacco taxes by selling cigars and smokeless tobacco at convenience stores and gas stations. Kumar repeatedly failed to pay Connecticut’s required tobacco excise, paying only two percent of the tax owed. In 2008, Kumar sold the business, but he continued to receive income from the ongoing tobacco tax fraud that occurred at the Berlin warehouse. In June 2012, the fraud came to an end when federal agents executed a search warrant at the Berlin warehouse and 12 other locations in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. During the six-year scheme, Kumar and others helped evade more than $16 million in taxes owed to the state of Connecticut.
In the illegal check cashing case, Kumar owned a liquor store in Springfield, Mass., which also operated as an unregistered money transmitting business. Kumar cashed checks without the required registration despite warnings from his bank. Among the cashed checks were 195 United States Treasury tax refund checks worth approximately $1.2 million obtained through fraudulent statements filed with the IRS.
United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; James M. Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division; Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of Criminal Investigations of the Internal Revenue Service in Boston; Commissioner Geoffrey E. Snyder of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue; Acting Commissioner John Biello of the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services; and Matthew B. Millhollin, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England, made the announcement. Assistant US Attorney Christopher L. Morgan and Assistant US Attorney Steven Breslow of the Rollins Branch Office in Springfield prosecuted the cases.
