Man, brother-in-law sentenced in fraud case

A Des Plaines man was taken into custody Thursday after he and his brother-in-law pleaded guilty last week to defrauding the state of more than $450,000 in sales tax from their Crystal Lake gas stations, officials said.

In August 2015, Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office, in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Revenue, charged the two men for underreporting gasoline sales between January 2008 and April 2011, Madigan's office said in a news release.

Kantibhai Patel, 50, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay more than $401,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to filing a fraudulent sales tax return. He operated Goga Petroleum, 415 W. Virginia St.

His brother-in-law Dineshkumar Patel, 46, of Hanover Park, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of failing to keep books and records and was ordered to pay more than $57,000. He operated Gayatri Petroleum, 339 W. Virginia St.

"These defendants intentionally defrauded the state out of hundreds of thousands of dollars," Madigan said. "Our ongoing investigations and enforcement efforts have uncovered egregious cases of fraud against the taxpayers of Illinois."