Adnan Rashid faces 20 counts of tax evasion and mail fraud.
AB Wire
A federal grand jury has indicted a Pakistani American man in llinois, Adnan Rashid, who owned all or parts of four local gas stations, for allegedly failing to report $16 million in sales.
Rashid, 34, faces 20 counts of tax evasion, filing false tax returns and mail fraud, according to a news release Wednesday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The indictment alleges the fraud cost the state of Illinois $1.2 million in revenue.
From 2007 until January 2013, Rashid allegedly submitted false sales and use tax returns to the state. He also is charged with filing false federal corporation tax returns in 2009 and 2010 as well as false personal returns in those same years, reported the Peoria Journal Star.
He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of all counts.
The gas stations were all Marathon stations in or near the city of Peoria.
The indictment further alleges Rashid would manipulate the receipts to underreport sales tax, which would cost the state thousands each month in tax revenue.
According to one of the counts, he underreported his own personal income by nearly $200,000 to “evade and defeat a large part of the income tax due.”
The case is being jointly prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. A date for Rashid to appear in U.S. District Court in Peoria has not been set.