Two of the top three tax avoiders in California are actually the same person. In 2007, despite cries of privacy invasion, the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB), in charge of income tax, and the Board of Equalization (BOE), in charge of sales and use taxes, each began publishing a list of their largest tax scofflaws.

 

The FTB updates its list annually and the BOE freshens its list every quarter. As of February 14, 2012, the listed FTB debtors owed a total of $122.9 million. The BOE published a list on March 2, 2012, of the top 500 tax delinquents with accounts of more than $100,000. The total of their delinquencies came to $555.7 million.

 

The leading scofflaw, California Target Enterprises Inc. ($18.4 million), is essentially the same entity as #3 on the list, Gary Lazar, doing business as P&M Service Stations, ($11.1 million) and one farther down the list, Pronto Marketing Company ($987,706). Liens against the properties have been on the books since 2002.

 

All three are listings for Gary and Divine Grace Lazar, whose rap sheets date back to at least 1992 when the Anaheim Hills couple was arrested on charges of contaminating soil and ground water with gasoline from leaky storage tanks beneath some of their 200 gas stations. Both went to jail after it was determined they had doctored gasoline, faked tests on their leaky gas tanks and failed to pay $25 million in state sales, gas and cigarette taxes. The doctored gasoline was a mixture of kerosene, diesel and gas that apparently damaged thousands of vehicles.

 

The Lazars were sentenced in February 1995 to eight and a half years in state prison. They were also separately indicted by the federal government in 1996 for bankruptcy fraud, for which Gary Lazar was sentenced to 51 months in jail, while Divine Grace Lazar received a 21-month sentence. By then, the couple had divorced.

-Ken Broder

 

Top 100 Delinquent Taxpayers Owe $419M (by Sam Pearson, California Watch)

State Tells Delinquent Taxpayers to Pay Up (by Joanna Lin, California Watch)

Largest Sales & Use Tax Delinquencies in California (Board of Equalization website)

Woman Receives 21-Month Sentence for Fraud (by James S. Granelli, Los Angeles Times)

Adulterated-Gas Dealer Sentenced in Finance Fraud (by James S. Granelli, Los Angeles Times)