Cigarette taxes mean serious business to the federal government ? so much so that a Baltimore tobacco shop owner is going to prison for dodging them.
Enoch Moon, 39, of Elkridge, was sentenced to six months in prison, followed by three years of supervised probation, for selling and distributing contraband cigarettes.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake, who sentenced Moon on Friday, also ordered him to pay $427,000 in restitution to the state government and to forfeit $740,000.
Moon was the owner of Ben Lex Tobacco Shop in Baltimore and Discount Tobacco Outlet in Towson.
Moon, who pleaded guilty in January, agreed in a statement of facts that from 2001 to 2004, he purchased large quantities of cigarettes over the Internet, many of which came from Indian reservations, where cigarettes are typically cheaper because the wholesalers do not pay state excise taxes.
The cigarettes bore no evidence that the applicable state taxes were paid, and the wholesalers did not report these cigarette purchases to the Maryland comptroller, according to the U.S. Attorney?s Office.
Then Moon was able to resell substantially more than 60,000 cigarettes he knew did not bear evidence of the payment of Maryland cigarette taxes, prosecutors said.
The amount of state tax loss was about $427,000, according to the statement of facts.
Moon?s attorney did not return a call for comment Sunday.
