All of the story, including all those mentioned, sounds pretty shady to me???

Feds seize millions in cash, cars and art from major cigar executive
http://www.news10.net/story/news/crime/2014/05/01/feds-seize-millions-in-cash-cars-and-art-from-major-cigar-executive/8550545/


Millions of dollars in cash, sports cars, jewelry and art once belonging to an executive at Swisher International, the world's largest cigar maker, are now in the hands of federal agents, according to court documents filed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The ATF seized the assets from Alex Goldman, the president of Royal Gold Cigars, Swisher International's premium cigar division. They accuse him of secretly selling millions of dollars' worth of cigars to two unnamed California companies without paying state excise taxes.

California collects substantial taxes on cigars, between 31 percent and 46 percent of the sales price, and requires all dealers to be licensed by the Board of Equalization.

According to the court documents, Goldman willfully took steps to avoid those taxes while running his own company House of Oxford between 2006 and 2011.

The ATF said Goldman's House of Oxford company began selling untaxed tobacco to an unnamed "Customer Number 1" in 2006. The scheme involved House of Oxford shipping untaxed cigars directly to customers of "Customer 1" within California, but billing "Customer 1" at their out-of-state office. "Customer 1's" primary customer was a wholesale tobacco business inside California, according to ATF documents, although the documents don't name the company.

MORE: Sports cars, $1M seized from major cigar executive

In 2009, House of Oxford began selling untaxed cigars to a second California tobacco distributor, according to the documents. Between 2009 and 2010, House of Oxford shipped cigars to "Customer 2" about 100 times. They avoided taxes by shipping the product to multiple home addresses associated with "Customer 2" instead of their business office.

According to ATF documents, Goldman signed a settlement agreement on April 14 admitting there was enough evidence to support the forfeiture of his property.

The ATF took in a huge haul from Goldman, including about $7 million in cash, a Ferrari, a Porsche, an Audi and 38 pieces of expensive jewelry and art, including three works by Joan Miro.

Agents also seized $5 million in funds related to a loan between House of Oxford and another major cigar company, Drew Estate. The documents don't say what the loan was for or if Drew Estates had any involvement in House of Oxfords' criminal activity.

Goldman was hired on to run Swisher's premium cigar division Royal Gold Cigars in 2013. The documents don't say if they suspect Goldman of doing anything illegal during his tenure at Swisher.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said she could not comment on the case because of the ongoing investigation. News10 will update the story as we learn more.

Funny how they just released a cigar together. Believe the nirvana is a joint project.

and requires all dealers to be licensed by the Board of Equalization.



WHAT????????????

Nirvana is rolled by DE, pretty good cammie

I heard they were good

I don't suggest people break the law, and I don't know the specifics in this case, but state excise taxes are suck the big wazoo.
They should have told California to stick it up their arse and simply left for another state.

Friggin politicians never seem to get enough.

This must be a weird week cause once again I agree with tg

Heck I have been through some pretty stupid stuff with the California Board of Equalization. I was the captain of a vessel a few years back that was sold to an idiot. He sunk the vessel off the New Jersey coast from incompetence. The state of California tried to tax me on the vessel purchase price though the vessel never saw the pacific. It took years to get justice. I had to prove the vessel had never been in California. That is like proving a car had never been driven somewhere. How do you prove what did not take place. I finally proved it, and you know what Cali did not have to pay my expenses for proving them wrong. I will never return once I escape here, hopefully soon.
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