LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Louisville businessman pleaded guilty Monday to playing a role in a scheme to sell more than $12 million in cigarettes online and avoid paying Kentucky taxes on the smokes.

Israel Chavez, 48, admitted in federal court in Louisville that he used two companies, Chavez, Inc., and Cigarettes Direct to You, to buy cigarettes from another Kentucky dealer and falsify invoices through an out-of-state company. By using false invoices for the sales, prosecutors said, Chavez and his alleged co-conspirators shorted Kentucky of more than $2 million in excise taxes.