Man sentenced to federal prison for tax evasion
He must pay $362,249.53 in restitution, a fine of $10,000 and serve three years probation.
MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) –The co-owner of multiple bars and a restaurant in Georgia, has been sentenced to federal prison for tax evasion.
53-year-old Eugene Britt III, of Milledgeville, was sentenced to two years in prison after previously pleading guilty to Tax Evasion. Britt must also pay $362,249.53 in restitution, a fine of $10,000 and serve three years of supervised release upon completion of his prison sentence.
According to court documents, Britt engaged in a scheme to evade taxes owed to the IRS on income from multiple bars and a restaurant he and others owned near college campuses in Georgia. As part of the scheme, Britt and others disguised their ownership in the bars by causing each establishment to be owned on paper by a single person. Britt and the other true owners then shared in the profits by skimming cash and disbursing it amongst themselves.
Britt personally controlled the distribution of cash for three of the establishments. As part of his guilty plea, Britt acknowledged he skimmed cash from his bars and restaurants for nearly 20 years, and did not report it on his tax returns.
He also admitted to engaging in a similar cash skimming operation of beer sales at a music festival in 2015. Britt ensured his individual tax return was false, because he did not inform his accountant of the cash he received from the bars and the music festival during this year.
