Duluth man sentenced for tax evasion at stores

A Duluth man has been sent to prison for tax evasion at stores he owned in Duluth and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Chief U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim sentenced Shimon Shaked, 57, to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $620,362 in restitution. Shaked pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion last year.

Through a holding company, Shaked owned t-shirt and souvenir shops in Canal Park and one in Marquette, Michigan.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota alleged that Skahed listed his teenage daughter as the nominal owner of ALMS18, LLC, the holding company that owned the Duluth stores, "in order to hide and evade taxes on income he received from the company."

Prosecutors say Shaked reported credit card sales for the stores but not most of the cash sales, using the cash for personal expenses and to pay employees’ overtime wages. As part of his guilty plea, he admitted to evading about $620,362 in taxes.

Prosecutors filed charges after an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division.