Metro East Restaurant, Owners Sentenced for Conspiracy to Defraud the IRS

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Published on July 22 2016 2:38 pm
Last Updated on July 22 2016 2:38 pm
Written by Greg Sapp

A popular Metro East restaurant and its owners have been placed on probation, but must pay restitution for conspiracy to obstruct the IRS in the assessment and collection of federal income taxes.

Lotawata Creek, a restaurant in Fairview Heights, and its two owners, 50-year-old Rodney Archer and 52-year-old Kenneth Archer were all sentenced. Lotawata Creek, Inc. was placed on five years' probation and each of the Archers was placed on four years' probation.

The company and each owner were required to pay direct restitution totaling $219,183.23. The amount had already been paid prior to sentencing. Each of the defendants are required to pay additional penalties and interest to the IRS, and they will also have to pay unpaid taxes plus penalties and interest to the Illinois Department of Revenue. That amount is still being determined.

Prosecutors say the Archers and the corporation altered and manipulated the information in the restaurant's point of sale system to lower the reported cash sales and then removed the corresponding amount of cash from the business prior to being deposited and reported as gross receipts.