An Alaskan tobacco shop owner has been convicted for his role in swindling $1.3 million worth of cigarette taxes from the Municipality of Anchorage.
Michael Butler was indicted on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to make false statements related to cigarette distribution, according to the Alaska U.S. Attorney’s Office. Six others — Kyong Hee Kim, Sun Sims, Kimberly Sims, Jae Ho Lee, Jae Gak Lee and Jerry Lee — have also pleaded guilty for their part in the conspiracy. Insook Baik was charged in the indictment, but was acquitted at trial.
Butler and Sun Sims operated and managed Up in Smoke, located within the municipality, and Golden Eagle Tobacco and Longmere Lake Grocery and Liquor, which are located in Kenai and Sterling respectively.
Anchorage has an excise tax for cigarettes purchased within the municipality. The pair could legally purchase MOA excise tax-exempt cigarettes from tobacco wholesale distributors in the municipality, but only if those cigarettes were sold outside Anchorage, the district attorney’s office said.
From 2009 to Oct. 10, 2012, Butler and Sun Sims used the non-Anchorage store accounts to buy tax-free cigarettes they intended to sell within the municipality, court records say. The two also sold those tax-exempt cigarettes to other retailers within Anchorage for a fee. They then collected payments from those retailers and converted the money into cashier’s checks that appeared to be purchased by one of their Kenai Peninsula stores.
“Thus, they avoided paying the MOA excise tax and increased their own profits,” the district attorney’s office statement says.