Massachusetts Restaurant Owner Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Defraud the IRS

A Denham, Massachusetts, resident pleaded guilty today in Boston to conspiring to defraud the United States by impeding the lawful functions of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to court documents, Ayaz Ali Shah co-owned and operated a carry-out restaurant called “New York Fried Chicken and Pizza” that conducted business in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The indictment alleges that Shah, together with his co-defendants, Muhamad Siuyab Khan and Khurshed Jehan Badshah, conspired to defraud the United States from 2009 through 2014. The co-defendants each owned twenty percent of the business, but during the five-year period charged in the indictment, Shah and his co-conspirators allegedly agreed to underreport the business’s gross receipts, cost of goods sold, and net profit, and to report these false amounts on Shah’s 2012 and 2013 individual tax returns.

The indictment against Khan and Badshah remains pending. An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Chief United States District Judge Patti B. Saris scheduled Shah’s sentencing for Sept. 19, 2019. Shah faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the conspiracy charge. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman commended special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI Boston Division, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Boston Police Department, who conducted the investigations, and Trial Attorneys Mark McDonald and Thomas Voracek of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.