NEWPORT NEWS — A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Sportsmans Grille owner Stephen G. Genakos with nine counts of tax fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced Friday.
According to the indictment, Genakos, 62, is the sole owner and managing director of Sarantos, Inc., a Virginia Subchapter S corporation that does business as a restaurant, the Sportsmans Grille, in James City County.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, the indictment alleges that since 2016, Genakos skimmed more than $670,000 from the Sportsmans Grille, depositing more than $112,000 in his personal bank accounts and gambling more than $502,000 with the Virginia Lottery.
It further alleges that in 2020, he listed the business for sale. In 2021, undercover agents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made contact with Genakos, and during this operation, he allegedly joked about his “magic book,” and ultimately provided IRS agents the chance to view the true books and records of the business.
The indictment further alleges that for tax years 2016 through 2020, Genakos filed materially false tax returns for himself and his business. He is charged with filing nine returns that understate his taxable income by more than $670,000 and caused a tax loss to the United States of approximately $113,163.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, Genakos is charged with aiding and assisting in the preparation of materially false tax returns. If convicted, he faces a maximum of three years in prison on each of the nine counts.
It notes actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties, and a federal district court judge will ultimately determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Kareem A. Carter, IRS Criminal Investigation Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Washington D.C. Field Office, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mack Coleman and Brian Samuels are prosecuting the case.
