BROOKLYN JEWELERS CAUGHT SELLING 12 MILLION WORTH OF JEWELRY TAX FREE!

Brooklyn jewelers traded bracelets for handcuffs after a sting operation caught them selling $12 million worth of bling off the books, prosecutors said Tuesday.

"They are stealing money from the taxpayers," said Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, who slapped the store owners with tax violations.

The two-year probe called Operation Bracelet involved undercover detectives posing as customers and recording the jewelers offering to waive sales tax on all-cash sales.

Tax investigators then searched the stores and found the "proverbial second set of books," Hynes said.


Alexander Shamayan, president of Crystal Sparkse jewelry store in Bensonhurst, underreported his sales by $6.5 million from 2004 to 2007 - evading $550,000 in sales tax, Hynes said.


Ghassan Maalouf of Golden Art Fine Jewelers in Bay Ridge allegedly rang up $1.5 million without paying $130,000 in sales tax. And Saeed Azarfar of Pavillion Jewelers in Midwood evaded $350,000 in sales tax on $4.2 million in sales, prosecutors said.


Each face up to four years in prison if convicted.

Three other Brooklyn jewelers have already 'fessed up and paid the tax, avoiding jail time.


"We have seen enough of this," said William Comiskey, the state deputy commissioner of tax enforcement, who said billions are being diverted out of state coffers.


"We are beginning in a way we have never done before to crack down on sales tax cheats."

"It's not a question of whether you're going to be caught," Hynes warned violators. "It's when you're going to be caught."