The dealerships are on the same block…
By Betsy Scheinbart
The owners of two Jamaica used car dealership were arrested Friday on charges of stealing nearly $1 million from New York state by failing to pay sales tax on cars sold, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
The dealerships are on the same block of Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, but their owners have been charged in separate cases with grand larceny and other crimes for allegedly pocketing the sales tax paid by the customers. They each face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, Brown said.
“Merchants who fail to pay sales taxes deprive all of us — the residents of New York state — of badly needed revenues,” Brown said. “They will be vigorously prosecuted.”
Mahdoh El Touby, 50 of 29 Liggett Rd., Valley Stream, L.I., allegedly failed to pay more than $725,000 in sales tax from the cars he sold at Planet Motor Cars Inc., 161-10 Hillside Ave., the DA said.
Marcos Bensaquen, 40, of 80-84 Tryon Place, Jamaica, allegedly dodged over $239,000 in sales tax from Loyal Auto Imports, Inc., at 161-05 Hillside Ave., which he owned, according to the DA.
New York State Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Arthur Roth echoed Brown’s sentiments on the case.
“Those who illegally pocket sales tax receipts are nothing more than common thieves who endanger important government programs that are dependent on those tax dollars,” Roth said. “We will do everything in our power to track them down and prosecute them.”
