Photo Courtesy of Google
Eltouby owns Hillside Motors, LLC, in Jamaica (pictured) and New York Motor Group, LLC, in Woodside.
By Forum Staff
The NYS Dept of Taxation and Finance in conjunction with the Queens DA’s office have charged and arrested the owner of three used car dealerships operating in Woodside and Jamaica, Queens, with stealing a total of more than $332,160 in New York State/New York City sales taxes by failing to report car sales totaling more than $3.8 million between 2010 and 2015.
Consumers who pay sales tax are expecting that money to go to the public treasury instead of being pocketed by business owners according to Queens DA Richard Brown. “ These types of paper crimes make every New Yorker a victim by cheating the government and the public out of money that is necessary to maintain services and infrastructure.”
The defendant was identified as Mamdoh Eltouby, 65, of Melville, Long Island.
He is the owner of Planet Motor Cars, Inc., and Hillside Motors, LLC, both of which operate at 161-10 Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, and New York Motor Group, LLC, which operates at 60-20 Northern Boulevard in Woodside.
Eltouby was arraigned on three criminal complaints that variously charge him and his companies with the crimes of second and third-degree grand larceny, first-degree falsifying business records and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing.
Released on his own recognizance, he is scheduled to next appear in court on April 7, 2017, and will face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. In the case of a corporation, a felony is punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 or double the amount of the illegal gain.
Criminal charges say that Eltouby and his three businesses allegedly failed to report a total of $3,852,495.82 in taxable sales of vehicles between March 1, 2010, and March 30, 2015, and, as a result stole a total of more than $332,160.55 in sales tax that they collected from customers but did not forward to the state Department of Taxation and Finance. It is alleged that of the sales taxes withheld, a total of approximately $166,181.59 was owed to New York State and approximately $165,978.96 was allegedly owed to New York City.
