A southwest suburban businessman accused of avoiding more than $1 million in state taxes on tobacco products was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday.
Mohammad Aburish, operator of the Suha & Janna Company, an Orland Park tobacco distribution business, failed to report $5.6 million in sales of tobacco products between 2010 and 2012, the Illinois Department of Revenue said in a statement.
The state missed out on more than $1 million in tax revenues on those items, the department said.
Cook County Judge Clayton Crane handed down the two-year sentence Tuesday after Aburish pleaded guilty to one felony count of failure to file a corporate income tax return, court records show.
Aburish, 38, of the 17400 block of South Carlyle Court in Tinley Park, was also ordered to pay more than $561,000 in restitution.
“Tax fraud is a serious crime, and we are gratified the sentence included a substantial prison term, in addition to requiring delinquent taxes to be paid,” stte Revenue Director Brian Hamer said in the statement.
The attorney general’s office prosecuted the case.
