Fried Chicken Restaurant Owners Take a Lickin’ From the IRS

In a superseding indictment, three restaurant owners were charged with 18 counts of conspiracy and willful failure to pay taxes.

Hazrat Khan and Kurshed Iqbal, both from Boston, MA were initially indicted in April 2016 and the superseding indictment added Rahman Zeb, also of Boston to the charges.

The defendants owned two Crown Fried Chicken restaurants as well as the New York Fried Chicken Restaurant.  It’s alleged that Khan and Iqbal took steps to conceal their ownership in two of the stores and provided tax preparers with false information regarding payroll and income, causing the preparers to file false returns. Khan and Zeb used a similar scheme for the third restaurant.

To avoid paying payroll taxes, all three are alleged to have falsely reported the number of employees, many who were undocumented workers, and wages paid to the IRS.  It’s also alleged that they paid their employees under the table and filed false tax returns with the incorrect amount of sales, total income, compensation of officers, salaries and wages and taxable income.

If convicted, Khan, Iqbal and Zeb face up to five years in prison for conspiracy, a fine of $250,000 and restitution.  On the charge of willful failure to pay taxes, the court could impose a maximum sentence of five years in prison, an additional fine of $250,000 and three years supervised release.