Long Beach : Restaurant Owner Sentenced for Tax Evasion
In one of the largest tax-evasion cases in the Los Angeles area, a Long Beach restaurant owner was ordered this week to pay more than $180,000 in back taxes, penalties and fines and to contribute 600 hours of community service.
Jimmy Contos, owner of the Golden Star restaurants on Pacific Coast Highway and on Carson Street, pleaded no contest last month to a felony charge that he failed to report more than $400,000 in income for 1983 and 1984.
On Monday, Long Beach Superior Court Judge Richard Chauat sentenced Contos, 60, to a suspended nine-month sentence and placed him on three years probation. The judge also ordered the Lakewood resident to pay an additional $6,800 for the cost of the investigation, according to Franchise Tax Board spokesman Jim Reber.
The case was investigated by the Governor’s Task Force on the Underground Economy, which was established in 1986 to coordinate law enforcement efforts against tax evaders.
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