Former Frankfort Smoke Shop Owner Sentenced to More Than 6 Years in Federal Prison

A former Frankfort resident and owner of a chain of Southland tobacco shops was sentenced Thursday to more than six years in federal prison and must pay more than $5.45 million in taxes he owed over nine years in which he hid and failed to report more than $60 million in cash receipts from his stores, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago.

Abbas Ghaddar, 43, pleaded guilty in June to cheating on his state and federal taxes by purposely hiding and failing to report revenue from his , which had stores in Frankfort, Tinley Park, Orland Park, Glendale Heights and Bradley. Ghaddar used the money to live lavishly in his homeland of Lebanon, building a luxurious house, buying a farm worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and owning a soccer club, the release stated.

An analysis of cash receipts and expenditures between 2001 and 2009 showed that Ghaddar's stores generated more than $102 million in gross revenues, at least $60 million of which were cash receipts, according to court documents. But Ghaddar deposited less than one percent of those receipts into corporate bank accounts and declared little, if any, on his corporate tax returns, the release said. Overall, he under-reported receipts by more than $74 million, according to the release.

A naturalized U.S. citizen, Ghaddar faces 76 months in prison and must pay $4,828,800 to the State of Illinois and $650,452 to the United States. He was arrested in December 2009 in Germany and was extradited to the U.S. in May 2010 to face charges in a 13-count federal indictment, which included tax fraud conspiracy and mail fraud, the release said.