By Jeff Lipton
The raids capped a three-month undercover investigation, dubbed "Operation Speed Racer," during which police executed search warrants at the 10 businesses on Thursday, May 29. The results of the investigation were announced a week later by county police, State Department of Taxation and Finance and the district attorney.
The operation zeroed in on merchants who agreed not to charge state sales tax if the customers paid for the ordered merchandise with cash, authorities said. Police who went undercover posing as customers entered into negotiations with the merchants for the purchase of high-priced auto accessories such as chrome rims and high-end tires, officials said.
Authorities said no one was arrested as a result of the investigation, which is continuing.
Search warrants were executed at Ganin Tire, 689 Burnside Ave. and D&D Autotronics, 265 Burnside Ave., both in Lawrence, authorities said. While the operators of Ganin offered no comment, the manager at D&D, Shawn Ramtahall, said he was upset the way police barged into his shop and confiscated his records.
"This is crazy," he said. "They shut it down like criminals. They took all
my files and computers and [more]. How could we do business like that? They just came in and raided the place, messing up our business here. What they are claiming is B.S."
According to investigators, other area businesses that were raided include: Speed Zone, 257 Hempstead Tpke., Elmont; Speed World, 598 Sunrise Highway, Baldwin; Distinct Motoring, 141 Sunrise Highway, Lynbrook; and Marquino's Tire and Custom Wheels, 2199 Bellmore Ave., Bellmore.
Businesses are required to collect and remit sales tax to the Department of Taxation and Finance, said officials, adding that not only is failure to collect the tax a violation of the law, it also gives shops an unfair advantage over their competitors who comply with the law. They said the sales tax that goes uncollected negatively affects all taxpayers in Nassau County.
"They are missing out on the money that would come back into the county," said Sgt. Anthony Repalone, a police spokesman. "This has been a continuing effort targeting retail stores that are not paying the appropriate state sales tax."
Repalone said authorities will continue to be on the lookout for other retail outlets accused of skirting the state sales tax laws. In February, search warrants were executed at 11 county jewelry stores during an investigation into sales tax evasion in "Operation Gold Rush."
"It's not unthinkable that there are tens of millions of sales tax dollars involved in this issue in the county," County Executive Tom Suozzi said at the time. " ...We can't allow this to continue."
"The more the county collects in sales taxes," Suozzi said, "the less people have to pay in property taxes."
Officials said the state performs these types of investigations regularly, and that the county will continue to collaborate with the state by conducting them on various businesses on a more aggressive and consistent basis.
Punishment for non-compliance is "double the gain" from the offense, but most of these cases are settled short of litigation, officials said, adding that the county simply wants them to pay the back taxes.
Comments about this story? Jlipton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
