WCAC

by Chris Wangler

January 23, 2023

A Waltham man charged in a multi-year tobacco tax evasion scheme at a convenience store off Moody Street was convicted this week.

On Wednesday, Javed Iqbal Shaikh, 46, pleaded guilty to six counts of tax evasion, according to the office of Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

Shaikh was sentenced to one year in the house of corrections, six months to serve, balance suspended for five years on the first four counts and five years probation on the two additional counts.

From 2018 to 2020, Shaikh owned Cronin’s Market at 12 Crescent Street and routinely purchased untaxed products such as smoking tobacco and cigars from an out-of-state company.

The invoices clearly stated that taxes needed to be paid on the products, but Shaikh declined to pay more than $550,000 dollars in excise taxes, said the DA.

He was arraigned on the tax evasion charges in April 2022 in Middlesex Superior Court.

File photos