Bridgeport Grocery Store Owner Pleads Guilty

Samir Fattah, 55, of Oxford waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today in New Haven federal court to one count of filing a false tax return, announced John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Kristina O’Connell, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Fattah and his father jointly own Abu-Goush Market, doing business as International Farmers Market (“AGM”), a grocery store in Bridgeport. Fattah was responsible for AGM’s day-to-day operations, including making cash deposits to AGM’s business bank accounts.

During 2011, 2012 and 2014, without his father’s knowledge and approval, Fattah deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars of AGM’s net cash receipts into his personal bank accounts, federal officials said in a news release.

Fattah used some of the funds to pay AGM’s business expenses, but embezzled a total of $213,086 through this scheme. He failed to pay federal income taxes on the embezzled income for the 2011, 2012 and 2014 tax years resulting in a total tax loss of $54,067, officials said.

He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford on August 16, 2018, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of three years and a fine of up to $100,000. He also has agreed to repay the U.S. Treasury $54,067 in restitution for the taxes he failed to pay, and additional penalties and interest that have accrued on his unpaid taxes, officials said.