A South Beach man's cost for cheating the state of $6.1 million in taxes from his wholesale tobacco business is up to nine years behind bars.
Sulaiman Aamir was sentenced Monday, six weeks after a Brooklyn state Supreme Court judge convicted him at a bench trail of first-degree criminal tax fraud, according to the office of New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.
Aamir, 46, owned and operated Delta Distribution Services Corp., a large-scale cigar distributor on Union Street, Brooklyn, authorities said.
Delta imported millions of cigars from Pennsylvania-based wholesalers and resold them in New York without paying New York taxes on the goods, said authorities.
Licensed tobacco distributors like Aamir must pay a hefty 75-percent tax on the wholesale price of cigars sold, shipped, imported, manufactured or delivered in New York.
Between March and November of 2013, Aamir paid $100,000 in taxes, as opposed to the more than $6 million he owed, said authorities.
In a statement last year, then-state Tax Commissioner Thomas H. Mattox said it appeared Aamir had filed "multiple" false tobacco tax returns and had also falsified his business documents.
When Aamir was arrested in March 2014, authorities said Delta received shipments of nearly 2 million cigars between September and November of the prior year. That merchandise's wholesale value exceeded $2.2 million, said officials.
Aamir forked over $29,642 in tobacco taxes for the three-month period, while withholding more than $1.7 million he owed the state, alleged prosecutors.
Authorities said then that investigators had seized hundreds of thousands of cigars and more than $9,000 in cash from Delta's warehouse.
Investigators apparently discovered more discrepancies when they delved further into Delta's books after Aamir's arrest.
Aamir was sentenced to three to nine years in prison.
Louis Chisari, a lawyer for Aamir, said his client intends to appeal and believes he'll be vindicated.
"At trial, the state failed to show he purchased the cigars in the time frame (alleged), let alone $12 million in cigars, said Chisari.
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