A duo from Braintree, Massachusetts, each pled responsible in Suffolk Superior Courtroom over prices regarding unlicensed basement casinos within the space’s Chinatown and Quincy.
The 2 individuals, husband and spouse, Xue Tan Zheng, 50, and Xiu Rong Li, 55, admitted to the crimes, netting them fifteen felonies apiece. This contains the transporting and trafficking of 12,000 unstamped cigarettes, together with the registering of bets and possession of unlicensed gaming machines.
The fifteen felonies break down like this:
- Two counts of possession of an unlicensed gaming system
- Two counts of registering bets
- Two counts of tax evasion and submitting false tax returns
- Two counts of transporting 12,000 unstamped cigarettes
- Three counts of cash laundering
- Three counts of trafficking greater than 12,000 cigarettes
In keeping with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, Li and Zheng ran the 2 underground casinos from 2022. These offered tables, units, slot machines, and money payouts with none regulation. The unstamped cigarettes have been then bought inside the institutions.
Massachusetts seized over $6 million in cigarettes from underground casinos pair
Regulation enforcement raided the completely different areas again in September 2024. That is the place they’d a big seizure, as exterior of the “greater than 12,000” talked about within the responsible plea, they secured “600,000 packs of unstamped cigarettes” at completely different residences and companies. In keeping with the press launch, this tallies over $6,000,000. The husband and spouse duo would promote the cigarettes with out tax, which breaks tax mandates set by the Commissioner of Income.
One other 22 slot machines were also seized, together with $141,000. After all, the tax workplace will get its due, as legislation enforcement discovered that they didn’t file their taxes correctly in 2022 and 2023. Earlier experiences put that determine at round $1.2 million of revenue that wasn’t taxed.
The pair have been initially indicted in April, after the Tobacco Activity Power uncovered the underground casinos throughout an investigation. Zheng will serve three years in state jail.
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