Customs Broker Pleads Guilty in Cigar Excise Tax Evasion Scheme
A New York customs broker filed a guilty plea in connection with "a scheme to evade federal excise tax on imported cigars," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a news release. Alberto Rodriguez, of Briarwood, New York, allegedly used false entry summaries to misrepresent "among other things, the quantities of large cigars imported into the United States and the Federal tobacco excise tax due for those importations," the Department of Justice said. "In addition to consistently underreporting and evading the Federal tobacco excise tax, Rodriguez transmitted false and fraudulent documents to CBP using the United States Postal Service mail," DOJ said.
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Rodriguez profited from the scheme by sending invoices "to the two tobacco importers reflecting the true quantities of imported large cigars and the properly calculated Federal tobacco excise tax due, which resulted in the importers paying Rodriguez more than what he paid to CBP," DOJ said. "To conceal the scheme, Rodriguez altered documents, including importer invoices and bank records, and provided these altered documents to [Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau] agents and employees, all for the purpose of misleading TTB and pretending that he had correctly calculated and paid to CBP the Federal tobacco excise tax due on the large cigars imported by the two importers.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty to mail fraud and in total, "Rodriguez evaded approximately $503,681.15 in Federal Tobacco Excise Tax," DOJ said. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 22, and Rodriguez is facing a maximum of 20 years in prison.