One man has pleaded guilty in Gwinnett County and three other persons have been indicted in DeKalb County in a continuing investigation into the illegal trafficking of untaxed cigarettes in Georgia, authorities said.
Cajetan Fernandes, a former employee of an alleged cigarette trafficker, pleaded guilty to one felony count of possession of cigarettes with counterfeit stamps, according to the Georgia Attorney General’s office.
Fernandes was sentenced to 11 months 29 days in prison, with three months reduced to time served. He is to be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after he is released from jail.
Separately, a DeKalb County Grand Jury has returned indictments against Shaukat Sayani, Leslie Charles and Amin Hudda.
Sayani is accused of having bought 516,000 untaxed cigarettes with counterfeit excise tax stamps to avoid paying about $9.5 million in state cigarette excise taxes, authorities said. He faces charges of racketeering, possession of cigarettes with counterfeit stamps and sale of non-tax paid cigars.
Charles and Hudda were each charged with possession of cigarettes with counterfeit stamps, authorities said.
The indictments result from a joint federal and state investigation involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Atlanta Field Division, Georgia Attorney General’s Office, Georgia Department of Revenue, Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office, Lawrenceville Police Department and Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department.
The investigation, disclosed in October, resulted in 50 arrests at the time.
According to investigators, a crime ring involved retailers and wholesalers who practiced tax evasion on a large scale by purchasing counterfeit tax stamps. The alleged scheme cost Georgia millions of dollars in tax revenues.
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