Owner of Las Vegas liquor stores gets prison term in tax evasion case

A Las Vegas liquor store owner was sentenced Friday to 41 months in prison for tax evasion and conspiring to defraud the United States.

Jeffrey Nowak, 67, also was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, according to a statement released Monday by the Justice Department.

Nowak and Ramzi Suliman jointly owned liquor stores in Las Vegas. At their first store, Super Liquor Store South Strip, they skimmed cash receipts and kept a double set of books to omit nearly $4 million in cash sales, the Justice Department said.

“Nowak and Suliman provided the phony set of books to their accountant, causing him to create corporate tax returns that did not fully report the liquor store’s gross receipts and taxable income,” the Justice Department said.

Suliman pleaded guilty in July 2014 to conspiring with Nowak and was sentenced in January to 12 months in prison and three years of supervised release. He also was ordered to pay $428,003 in restitution to the IRS.

“Everyone is legally required to accurately report and pay taxes on their income – cash sales are not an opportunity to skirt this obligation,” Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart Goldberg said in the statement. “Nowak’s prison sentence makes clear that taxpayers cannot hide behind a double set of books.”

Contact Lawren Linehan at llinehan@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0381. Follow@lawrenlinehan on Twitter.