MARLBOROUGH, MA — Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan has charged the owner of several local businesses after he failed to pay excise taxes on vape products, according to Ryan’s office.
Ashraf Youssef, a Hopkinton resident, owns the AAA Smoke & Vape Shop in Marlborough, the Sudbury Sundries store and gas station and a similar business in Northbridge. According to Ryan, Youssef failed to pay nearly $470,000 in excise taxes on vape products he purchased from out-of-state distributors between 2020 and 2022.
Youssef was previously arrested in 2013 over the sales of bath salts and synthetic marijuana out of his Sudbury store. In 2023, he applied for a license to sell wine and beer at his Sudbury convenience store, but the select board turned denied that proposal.
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Youssef, 61, was arraigned on charges of three counts of tax evasion on June 18. He was released after the court hearing, and will next appear at Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn on July 9, according to Ryan’s office.
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