Peoria Gas Station Owner to Pay $1.5 Million, Serve 21 Months in Prison for Fraud, Tax Evasion

PEORIA, Ill. – A New Jersey man who owned four Peoria area gas stations, Adnan Rashid, 35, has been sentenced to serve 21 months in federal prison and to pay $1.5 million for underreporting sales on federal corporate and Illinois sales tax returns and for later failing to file corporate returns. On March 20, Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Shadid sentenced Rashid and ordered that he pay $1.28 million in restitution to the State of Illinois and $206,573 to the IRS. Rashid was ordered to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons on May 30, to begin serving his prison sentence.

On Dec. 1, 2016, Rashid pled guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion. According to court documents, Rashid was the sole owner of two Peoria area Marathon gas stations and a 50 percent owner of two additional Peoria Marathon stations. Rashid admitted that he grossly underreported or failed to report sales at the four stations on federal corporate tax returns and the Illinois sales and use tax returns. Rashid admitted that he altered the stations’ gross receipt data before he provided it to his accountant. Information at the sentencing hearing showed that he had over $41 million in unreported gross receipts for the gas stations and $1 million in unreported personal income.

Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Darilynn J. Knauss and former Illinois Assistant Attorney General Eugene Bian prosecuted the case. The Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, and the Illinois Department of Revenue investigated the charges.