{"id":784,"date":"2019-05-21T13:03:45","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T13:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/05\/21\/2019521ray-amp-mikes-deli-owner-pleads-guilty-to-tax-evasion\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:29:33","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:29:33","slug":"2019521ray-amp-mikes-deli-owner-pleads-guilty-to-tax-evasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/05\/21\/2019521ray-amp-mikes-deli-owner-pleads-guilty-to-tax-evasion\/","title":{"rendered":"Ray & Mike’s owner pleads guilty to tax evasion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The owner of a Hamden deli frequented by Quinnipiac University students pleaded guilty to one count of federal tax evasion last week and faces up to five years in prison, as well as a hefty restitution. <\/p>\n

Ray George, 52, owns Ray & Mike\u2019s Dairy and Deli<\/a> at 3030 Whitney Ave. and is a popular fixture at the bustling shop. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Ray George, 52, owns Ray & Mike\u2019s Dairy and Deli, a business that has served Hamden for 21 years. Pictured here in a photo from the deli\u2019s website, George pleaded guilty to one count of federal tax evasion on Friday, May 17.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

But, according to a Monday release<\/a> from the U.S. District Attorney\u2019s Office for Connecticut, George \u201cunderreported his income by approximately $365,065 for the 2012 tax year and by $273,108 for the 2013 tax year, and failed to pay a total of approximately $220,000 in taxes.\u201d <\/p>\n

George evaded his federal income taxes in multiple ways, the court documents say, using his Ray & Mike\u2019s business account for personal expenses, failing to deposit cash receipts from the deli into his business account and using a portion of the cash to fill an in-store ATM and not reporting the cash as income. <\/p>\n

The court documents also say George deposited three checks totaling nearly $300,000 from the Ray & Mike\u2019s business account into his personal investment account, without reporting the funds as income in any capacity, and then withdrew funds from the investment account to purchase personal investment properties.  <\/p>\n

He also deposited a $25,800 check from the Ray & Mike\u2019s lottery account into his personal investment account without reporting them.<\/p>\n

George waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty on Friday, May 17 in the U.S. District Court in Bridgeport. <\/p>\n

George faces a fine of up to approximately $440,000, as well as potential jail time.  He has agreed to pay back taxes of $220,663, plus interest and penalties.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old business is known best for its sandwich menu, as well as the fact it is open seven days a week, 365 days a year, including holidays and during winter storms. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The owner of the Whitney Avenue staple, Ray & Mike\u2019s Dairy and Deli, has pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion. Ray George faces up to five years in prison, as well as a fine of nearly $450,000. The status of the 21-year-old business, popular with Quinnipiac University students, is unknown. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,142,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hamden","category-homepage","category-quinnipiac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1896,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions\/1896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}