Daveco Liquors Owner Sentenced For Tax Evasion Scheme

DENVER (CBS4) - The owner of a Thornton liquor store who pleaded guilty to violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act was sentenced on Friday.

Lynn Kimbrough with the district attorney's office said Hani D. Sawaged, 59, the owner of Daveco Liquors, was accused of running a scheme to underpay sales tax to the city of Thornton and the state of Colorado.

Sawaged was sentenced to the stipulated sentence of two years of Economic Crime Unit probation and ordered to pay $1,309,423.83 in restitution.

"In exchange for his guilty plea to the most serious charge, other counts of theft, computer crime and tax evasion were dismissed," Kimbrough said in a statement.

Daveco Liquors says in their advertisements that the Guiness Book Of World Records lists the store as the largest liquor store in the world.

Hani Sawaged's two brothers pleaded guilty earlier this year in connection with the case.

Ghassan D. Sawaged, 57, and Bassam D. Sawaged, 48, pleaded guilty to theft and failure to file a tax return and are both serving a one-year deferred judgment sentence. They were ordered to jointly pay $200,000 in restitution for their role in the scheme.

An investigation revealed that from at least January 2007 through August 2008, "Sawaged and his brothers logged fictitious merchandise returns and took $5.4 million in cash from Daveco Liquors."