Spokane auto dealer pleads guilty to felony theft of sales tax

SPOKANE –
Feb. 25, 2013 – The operator of now-closed Alpine Auto Wholesale in
Spokane pled guilty today to felony theft of sales tax and filing false
state tax returns.

Marc Eugene Reed, 45, admitted that the
business collected $179,675.33 in sales tax on retail vehicle sales in
2009 and 2010 but failed to remit it to the state
Spokane County
Superior Court Judge Salvatore F. Cozza sentenced Marc Reed to 45 days
and ordered him to pay $180,275.33 in restitution and court costs.

The charges were filed in November 2011
by the Financial Crimes Unit of the Washington State Attorney General’s
Office at the request of the Washington State Department of Revenue.

According to the charging papers, Reed
and his late mother Linda Lee Reed admitted to state investigators that
they knew that they should have remitted the collected sales tax to the
Department of Revenue but were “going to get caught up later.”

# # #

For more information, contact:
Mike Gowrylow, Communications Director, Washington State Department of Revenue, (360) 534-1610