SEATTLE — Another person has been sentenced to prison for his role in a tax-evasion scam that raised millions of dollars through illicit cigarette sales on the Stillaguamish Indian Reservation.
Robert Stuber, 60, of Reno, Nev., was sentenced Monday to nine months in federal prison. He earlier admitted that he illegally sold more than a million cartons of untaxed cigarettes to Stillaguamish tribal leaders between 2003 and 2007.
Stuber pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle to conspiracy to traffic in contraband cigarettes and conspiracy to launder money. His Cowlitz Candy & Tobacco Co. Inc., based in Longview, supplied cigarettes to the Blue Stilly Smoke Shop in Arlington, owned by Ed and Linda Goodridge, their son Eddie Goodridge, and a relative, Sara Schroedl.
The company was paid more than $17 million for the untaxed smokes. Stuber has been ordered to pay more than $20 million in restitution.
The Goodridges also received prison terms and were ordered to pay more than $25 million that should have gone to Washington state through tobacco taxes. The money raised through the illegal cigarette sales didn’t go to the tribe, but instead wound up enriching the Goodridges and their co-conspirators, prosecutors allege.
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