Aurora gas station owner charged with sales tax fraud

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Updated: July 5, 2011 11:04AM

CHICAGO — The former owner of an Aurora gas station has been charged with sales tax fraud, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Wednesday.

Bhavesh Ghandi, 38, of Streamwood, is charged with two counts of sales tax fraud and two counts of mail fraud from activity that occurred between June 2007 and October 2009, Madigan said. Ghandi operated AMI Oil Corporation, 1030 N. Lake St., Aurora, from September 2005 to October 2009.

The owner of a gas station in Peoria also was charged with sales tax fraud this week.

“These businesses pocket the tax money consumers pay at the pump,” Madigan said in a press release.

Ghandi is scheduled to appear in court July 7. He faces a sentence of two to five years in prison if convicted on charges of filing a fraudulent Illinois sales and use tax return and mail fraud, class 3 felonies.

Madigan said gas station owners were falsely reporting sales figures.

The investigation so far has resulted in charges against 13 gas station owners, operators and accountants and payment of more than $52 million in previously unpaid sales tax, she said.