Binghamton Area Bar Owner Sentenced To One Year In Jail For Tax Evasion

ALBANY, NY (10/30/2009)(readMedia)-- New York State Department of Taxation and Finance Acting Commissioner Jamie Woodward announced that Todd Finch, 43, owner of the former Conklin Inn, located at State Route 7 in Conklin, was sentenced October 26 before Conklin Town Judge J. Marshall Ayres to one year in jail for evading the alcoholic beverage tax on purchases of over seven hundred liters of "bootlegged" liquor.

Finch, of 1108 Conklin Road, Conklin, pled guilty on May 29 to one count of willfully attempting to evade alcoholic beverage tax, a Class A misdemeanor.

The charge arose from an undercover investigation by the Department of Taxation and Finance in which investigators posed as bootleggers selling untaxed liquor allegedly purchased from New Hampshire.

During the undercover operation, Finch purchased liquor on 19 separate occasions between October 6, 2005 and February 28, 2007. Finch admitted to investigators that he had lowered his reported sales so he could remit less in state sales tax and bragged that his behavior "screws the government" and "keep[s] stuff off the books."

Previously, Finch had been given one year of pre-sentence supervision and ordered to begin making restitution of $84,293. Finch made one payment with a check that bounced.

Acting Commissioner Woodward stated, "I thank New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and his staff for their aggressive prosecution of this case and others like it. This case was made possible by investigators from the Department of Taxation and Finance Petroleum, Alcohol and Tobacco Unit, and the Collections and Civil Enforcement Division in our Binghamton Office.

"If businesses are aware that they have not remitted all of the tax they owe and are not yet under the scrutiny of the Department of Taxation and Finance, I urge those owners to immediately enter the Department's Voluntary Disclosure Program to correct past returns and avoid both civil and criminal penalties. More information about this program is available on our website at www.nystax.gov."

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