Crime & Safety
County Board GOP Boss' Grandson Pleads Not Guilty in Theft Case
Nicholas R. Moustis, faces a felony theft indictment that alleges he stole between $500 and $10,000 from MAK, a wholesale cigarette distributor in Mokena, the Sun-Times Media reported.
Nicholas R. Moustis, the grandson of Will County GOP Boss Jim Moustis, pleaded not guilty on theft charges July 3 in Will County Court.
Because Moustis' grandfather is both a Will County board member and the Frankfort Township supervisor, Special Prosecutor Dave Neal was assigned. Nicholas Moustis, 23, of 21349 S. 80th Ave. in Frankfort, is charged with one count of felony theft and a single county of misdemeanor theft.
Moustis appeared before Will County Judge Robert Livas.
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Moustis allegedly stole more than $3,600 from his employer, a Mokena wholesale cigarette distributor. The criminal complaint against Nicholas Moustis identified the victim of the theft as Mazher Khan, owner of MAK Wholesale Distributor in Mokena. Armed with a warrant, Mokena police arrested Moustis on May 3 at his Frankfort home.
Pervaiz Akhtar, Moustis' former supervisor at MAK, said security cameras captured Moustis in action, the Sun-Times Media reports. The next scheduled court date is Aug. 7.
Find out what's happening in Frankfortwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
READ the full-story in the Sun-Times Media.
Moustis is not the only one facing charges in connection with MAK. Khan, the owner of MAK, is scheduled to be sentenced later this month on three counts of contraband cigarette trafficking. On April 15, the U.S. Department of Justice said Khan, of Evergreen Park, faces up to five years in prison for each offense and up to $250,000 fines.
According to the original indictment, which came after a yearlong Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms investigation, Kahn and eight other defendants conspired to possess and transport unstamped cigarettes in quantities of 10,000 or more from Wisconsin to Illinois to evade Illinois state and local taxes.
In addition, the indictment also alleged that individual defendants possessed and transported between one and 182 cases (or between 12,000 to over 2 million cigarettes), and that collectively they evaded between $1 million and $4.6 million in state and local taxes.
READ the full story in Patch: Mokena Distributor Involved in Cigarette-Trafficking Case
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