EVERETT — An Everett yacht broker is accused of tax evasion and could face 10 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors allege Ronald J. Sperry, 59, failed to pay nearly $359,000 in sales tax he collected from late 2004 through 2007.
The man sold yachts through his businesses, Everett Yacht Sales and Hanan Yachts in the 1300 block of West Marine View Drive.
Sperry was charged Tuesday in Snohomish County Superior Court with felony theft of sales tax and filing false state tax returns, said Mike Gowrylow, a state Department of Revenue spokesman. The case was brought by the Criminal Justice Division of the Washington State Attorney General’s Office at the request of the Department of Revenue.
The man reported about $5.5 million in sales to the Department of Licensing but less than a quarter of that to the Department of Revenue, according to court documents.
He allegedly pocketed the sales tax paid to him by customers of the yachts he sold, Gowrylow said. He also was allegedly was under-reporting the 10 percent commissions he made on those sales, which are subject to business and occupation tax.
The man told state auditors he had lost most of his records. Investigators were able to reconstruct his sales activity by examining records necessary to transfer titles of the yachts he sold.
Felony theft of sales tax is punishable by up to a decade in prison, a $20,000 fine plus restitution, Gowrylow said.
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