SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Florida man has pleaded guilty to defrauding the state of California out of more than $10 million in tobacco taxes.
Federal prosecutors say 43-year-old Akrum Alrahib admitted Monday that he conspired to commit mail fraud. He is a former California resident now living in Miami. The crime carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
He admitted providing untaxed tobacco products like cigars, chewing tobacco and leaf tobacco to multiple people and companies in California in 2016 and 2017, knowing they would be sold illegally. That deprived the state of the tax it would have collected. The tax rate more than doubled during that period.
