A federal jury presided over by US District Judge Douglas R. Cole for the Southern District of Ohio has convicted the owner of a Cincinnati fried chicken restaurant chain of tax crimes.

used the ill-gotten funds to spend over $1m on gambling

According to court documents, Richard Bhoolai, 65, withheld federal taxes from his workers’ paychecks without submitting the funds to the IRS. Instead, as the IRS Criminal Investigation arm’s Cincinnati Field Office reported, Bhoolai used the ill-gotten funds to spend over $1m on gambling.

Bhoolai, who was the owner/operator of Richie’s Fast Food Restaurants, failed to submit payroll taxes for between 22 and 34 of his employees in 2017 and 2018.

After a five-day trial, the Ohio federal jury found the restaurateur guilty of eight counts of “failing to pay over taxes for four quarters in 2017” and ditto for 2018. Initially indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2023, Bhoolai faces up to five years in prison for each of the eight charges and a possible maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

According to an IRS news release, Congress will set Bhoolai’s maximum statutory sentence. A federal district court judge will then pronounce Bhoolai’s sentence “based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors” at a hearing date still to be announced.