Date: January 5, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov LAS VEGAS — A Nevada restaurant owner was sentenced Thursday to 37 months in prison for skimming $5 million dollars in cash sales and filing false federal income tax returns with an overall tax loss of $1.6 million dollars over a five-year period. According to court documents, Raul Gil owned and operated three Casa Don Juan restaurants in Las Vegas. From 2014 through 2018, Gil instructed his manager/internal bookkeeper to create false sales numbers for his restaurants that underreported cash sales at the restaurants by approximately $5.1 million. Then, Gil provided the false sales records to an outside tax return preparer who prepared his federal income tax returns. In July 2018, during an audit, Gil instructed his accountant to provide to the IRS false profit and loss statements that matched the figures reported on the tax returns. Gil also directed his bookkeeper to provide to the IRS false daily cash and sales reports purportedly printed from the restaurants' point-of-sale systems. During interviews with the IRS, Gil falsely stated to the revenue agent conducting the audit, and later to IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) special agents, that the falsified daily cash reports and point-of-sale records were accurate. In total, Gil caused a tax loss to the IRS of approximately $1.6 million. In addition to the prison sentence, United States District Judge Andrew P. Gordon ordered Gil to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $2,228,943.65 in restitution. Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department's Tax Division, United States Attorney Jason M. Frierson for the District of Nevada, and IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) Phoenix Field Office Acting Special Agent in Charge Carissa Messick made the announcement. The case was investigated by CI. Trial Attorney Thomas Flynn of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Lopez of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada prosecuted the case. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
