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Last updated on Monday, November 5, 2018
(BLOOMINGTON) - Indiana Tax Court Judge Martha Blood Wentworth dismissed Sahara Mart’s appeal of the $1.5 million in unpaid taxes to the state and slapped store owner Javad Noorihoseini with an order to pay another $45,000 in state attorney fees.
After the court says he tampered with witnesses, offered more than $1,000 in bribes and committed perjury during a state investigation into under-reported and unpaid taxes.
"The Court will not tolerate Sahara Mart's blatant attempts to deceive both its opponent and this court," Wentworth wrote in her Oct. 26 ruling in the case.
According to court records, a May 2016 Indiana Department of Revenue audit revealed Sahara Mart under-reported its taxable sales from 2013 through 2015. Using gross annual sales figures from Sahara Mart's 2007 federal income tax return, the department claims the store owes $6.8 million in taxes, penalties and interest. Sahara Mart's owner protested that amount and provided federal audits of gross sales from 2008 through 2011.
The department reduced the tax liability to $1.5 million, but Sahara Mart appealed the finding in September.
In March Noorihoseini testified the store had no employees and was being run by unpaid family members, friends and volunteers. He said he occasionally hires and pays independent contractors and consultants.
"In addition, Noorihoseini testified that approximately 40 percent of the beer and alcohol Sahara Mart purchased annually for resale was never sold because it went bad and had to be destroyed," the court document states.
State officials launched an independent investigation.
"It seemed highly unlikely a company could run two grocery stores each open 76 hours a week without any employees or that it would destroy huge amounts of alcohol on an annual basis rather than reducing its orders or otherwise adapting as a business," a court document in the case reads.
Investigators received affidavits from four people who had worked at Sahara Mart between 2013 and 2015. They said they had been paid by the hour, mostly in cash.
The judge determined Noorihoseini committed perjury. The Judge also determined he offered bribes to two employees if they would lie to investigators.
"Sahara Mart informed the Court that it took the charges against it seriously and that it 'didn't come to the courtroom throwing whatever it could at the wall to see what stuck.' But as described throughout this opinion, that is exactly what Sahara Mart did: it came to court and attempted to avoid the charges of perjury and witness tampering merely by making a series of poorly-developed -- and ultimately unsuccessful -- evidentiary objections," Wentworth wrote.
Sahara Mart's store at Second and Walnut streets remains open for business. A second located at 2611 East Third Street has closed and is listed for sale at $3.8 million.
Information Herald Times, https://www.hoosiertimes.com
A phone call to Noorihoseini at the Second Street store was not immediately returned Friday afternoon.
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