BOSTON – On September 15, 2022, a Longmeadow man was sentenced to two counts in federal court in Springfield for evading tobacco sales taxes and operating an illegal check-cashing business.
Satish Kumar, 67, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark. G. Mastroianni on his one-year 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 of his failures to register a money transfer business.
In 2006, Kumar acquired a wholesale warehouse business in Berlin, Connecticut. Kumar systematically evaded Connecticut’s tobacco tax by selling cigars and smokeless tobacco to convenience stores and gas stations. Kumar consistently failed to pay Connecticut a required tobacco excise tax, and he paid just 2% of the unpaid tax. In 2008, Kumar sold the business, but continued to receive proceeds from the ongoing cigarette tax fraud that occurred at a warehouse in Berlin. The fraud was put to rest in June 2012 when federal agents executed a search warrant at a warehouse in Berlin and 12 of his warehouses in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. During the six-year plan, Kumar and others helped avoid her more than $16 million in taxes owed to Connecticut.
In the illegal check cashing case, Kumar owned a liquor store in Springfield, Massachusetts and also ran an unregistered money transfer business. Kumar cashes the check without the required registration despite warnings from the bank. Among the cashed checks were 195 US Treasury tax refund checks worth approximately $1.2 million obtained through fraudulent returns filed with the IRS.
U.S. Attorney Rachel S. Rollins. James M. Ferguson, Special Agent for the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division. Jolene D. Simpson, a special agent in charge of criminal investigations for the Internal Revenue Service in Boston; Massachusetts Department of Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey E. Snyder. Acting Commissioner John Viello of the Connecticut Department of Revenue. And Matthew B. Milholin, the Special Agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher L. Morgan and Stephen Breslow of Rollins Springfield have filed charges in the case.
