(AUSTIN) A Houston area man has received a 12-year prison sentence and an order to pay $1 million in restitution to the state for his part in a scheme to blend and sell untaxed motor fuel to unsuspecting gas stations.
Sidney Baldon II 47 pled guilty in a Travis County court to three indictments for motor fuel tax crimes connected to the scheme that operated in 2002 and 2003. He was sentenced June 23.
Baldon owned a company that transported kerosene and other motor fuel products. The company purchased kerosene from a Louisiana refinery and to avoid paying excise taxes falsely claimed the fuel would be exported to Mexico. Instead Baldon trucked the kerosene to Texas and blended it with other additives to produce more than 22 million gallons of diesel fuel. Baldon distributed the diesel to retail gas stations where it was sold as taxable motor fuel. Tax was collected from consumers but was never remitted to the state defrauding the state of $4.5 million.
When a business collects tax and keeps the money it not only defrauds the state but also steals from every customer who pays the tax in good faith that the money will be used to benefit Texas" Comptroller Susan Combs said.
Baldons crime is featured on the Comptrollers Web site at http://www.window.state.tx.us/about/cid/. The Web page highlights the work of the Comptrollers Criminal Investigations Division and is often updated with news concerning arrests indictments and verdicts in tax cases. The site also informs the public about crimes and penalties for sales motor fuel tobacco and other taxes.
(AUSTIN) A Houston area man has received a 12-year prison sentence and an order to pay $1 million in restitution to the state for his part in a scheme to blend and sell untaxed motor fuel to unsuspecting gas stations.
Sidney Baldon II 47 pled guilty in a Travis County court to three indictments for motor fuel tax crimes connected to the scheme that operated in 2002 and 2003. He was sentenced June 23.
Baldon owned a company that transported kerosene and other motor fuel products. The company purchased kerosene from a Louisiana refinery and to avoid paying excise taxes falsely claimed the fuel would be exported to Mexico. Instead Baldon trucked the kerosene to Texas and blended it with other additives to produce more than 22 million gallons of diesel fuel. Baldon distributed the diesel to retail gas stations where it was sold as taxable motor fuel. Tax was collected from consumers but was never remitted to the state defrauding the state of $4.5 million.
When a business collects tax and keeps the money it not only defrauds the state but also steals from every customer who pays the tax in good faith that the money will be used to benefit Texas" Comptroller Susan Combs said.
Baldons crime is featured on the Comptrollers Web site at http://www.window.state.tx.us/about/cid/. The Web page highlights the work of the Comptrollers Criminal Investigations Division and is often updated with news concerning arrests indictments and verdicts in tax cases. The site also informs the public about crimes and penalties for sales motor fuel tobacco and other taxes.
