December 14, 2001
Popular Restaurant Owner Collects Taxes from Customers but Fails to Pay District
(Washington, DC) James G. Gore, Jr., president of the corporation that owns the popular restaurant Coco Loco, and the restaurant's parent corporation each pled guilty yesterday to one count of failure to file. Gore collected sales taxes from his customers, yet failed to forward those funds to the District. As a result, Gore owes the District government more than $800,000, including interest and penalties. Gore faces possible penalties of imprisonment for up to six months and a fine of $1,000 for each count, plus full restitution and court costs. Sentencing has been scheduled for Feb. 28, 2002.
Charges were initially filed against Gore on Aug. 11, 2000, on 16 counts of tax fraud for his failure to file monthly sales tax returns and failure to pay the taxes collected by his restaurant during the period Dec. 1, 1998 through March 31, 2000. Gore, however, continued in his failure to file and pay his sales taxes to the District. This resulted in additional charges filed on Nov. 16, 2001.
"We cannot allow non-compliance of tax laws and we will seek to halt any fraudulent behavior," said Herbert J. Huff, Deputy Chief Financial Officer for the Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR). "OTR has a responsibility to taxpayers to make certain that anyone with a legal obligation to collect DC sales tax does so. Additionally, OTR has a responsibility to make certain that when sales tax funds are collected, they are paid to the DC government. When sales taxes are not paid to DC, not only is the government cheated, but customers are also cheated. We are here to protect the citizens' hard-earned tax dollars. Tax fraud is a costly drain on everyone's resources."
As president of the corporation, Gore is responsible for the collection of sales taxes and the subsequent accounting and payment of those taxes to the District of Columbia by the corporation on a monthly basis.
