A Jackson County businessman pleaded guilty Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court to felony tax charges filed by the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
Hitesh Naginbhai Patel, 45, of 120 Lenora Lane, Sylva, North Carolina, pleaded guilty on February 20, 2018 to three counts of Embezzlement of State Property.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Carl Fox sentenced Patel to a 16-month minimum, 29-month maximum prison term. The sentence was suspended and Patel was placed on supervised probation for 60 months. As conditions of probation, Patel was ordered to serve four months in the custody of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, pay a fine of $25,000, and complete 100 hours of community service. Patel paid $256,155.82 in restitution prior to the plea.
Information presented in court showed that Patel, President of Om Jai Shakti, Inc., dba Holiday BP and Supertrack, Kush & Yuvraj, Inc., dba Catamount Pump & Go, and Disha & Hemali, Inc., dba Subway, located in Sylva, NC, aided and abetted the corporations to embezzle, misapply, and convert to their own use State and Jackson County Sales Tax during the periods December 1, 2011 through July 15, 2014. During this period of time, Patel held the position of President and was the responsible person of each of the corporations, which was under a duty to collect, hold in trust, and remit North Carolina State Taxes to the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
The charges against Patel resulted from an investigation by special agents with the Department’s Criminal Investigations Section in Raleigh and was prosecuted by the Special Prosecutions attorneys in the office of the Attorney General.