Clayton Business Owner Pleads Guilty To Employment Tax Fraud

OAKLAND – Restaurant owner Akbar Dawood Arghandiwal pleaded guilty today in federal court to willful failure to account for and pay federal employment taxes announced United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch, and Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Special Agent in Charge Michael T. Batdorf.  The plea was accepted by the Honorable Jeffery S. White, U.S. District Judge.  

In pleading guilty, Arghandiwal, 46, of Clayton, Calif., admitted that from 2008 through 2012, he owned restaurants in Clayton, Lafayette, and Danville.  Arghandiwal acknowledged that between January 2010 and December 2012, he knew he was required to withhold federal employment taxes from the wages of his employees, but instead paid those employees in cash and failed to pay employment taxes on those wages. He intentionally did not provide his accountant with complete and accurate information about the wages of his employees in order to conceal such wages and pay less in employment taxes.  In total, Arghandiwal failed to pay $90,648 in employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.  On September 13, 2017, Arghandiwal was charged by information with twelve counts of willful failure to account for and pay over employment taxes, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7202. Under the plea agreement, Arghandiwal pleaded guilty to a single count and the remaining counts will be dismissed.

Arghandiwal is currently free on bond.  Judge White has scheduled Arghandiwal’s sentencing for January 16, 2018.  The maximum statutory penalty for a violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7202 is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.  Additional periods of supervised release, fines, and restitution also may be imposed, however, any sentence will be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.   

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose A. Olivera is prosecuting the case.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation.