No Love for This Business Owner Sentenced to Prison for Tax Evasion

Shimon Shaked, the owner of several souvenir stores, including I love Duluth in Georgia and I Love Marquette in Michigan, has been sentenced to prison for tax evasion.

Shaked owned the stores under a holding company, and although he owned, operated, and controlled the business, he listed his teenage daughter as the nominal owner in order to hide his income and evade taxes. From 2013 to 2015 he reported the income from two of his stores on his daughter’s income tax returns instead of his own.

He reported the credit card sales for the stores but failed to report the majority of the cash sales. From 2013 to 2018 Shaked hid more than four million dollars in income. He used the unreported cash to pay for personal expenses and to pay some of his employees’ overtime wages in cash. The latter caused the IRS the loss of payroll taxes.

In total Shaked evaded paying approximately $620,362 in taxes. In addition to restitution he was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison.