![]() | |
A Happy's Pizza in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. | |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Restaurant |
Founded | Detroit, Michigan (1994 ) |
Founder | Happy Asker |
Headquarters | Farmington Hills, Michigan, U.S. |
Number of locations | 65+ |
Key people | Maher Bashi, COO |
Products | |
Website | happyspizza |
Happy's Pizza is an American regional chain of restaurants, serving pizza, ribs, chicken, seafood, sandwiches, pasta and salad. [1] [2]
The first Happy's Pizza restaurant was opened by Happy Asker in 1994 on the east side of Detroit. [2] [3] From 2006 to early 2008, the chain doubled in size and reached 27 locations. [4]
Now the chain has more than 65 locations in Michigan, Nevada, California and Ohio. [5] The pizzerias are known for their granite counter tops, Venetian plaster on their walls and the neon signs in and outside of the building. [1] [6]
The company makes a point of opening stores and offering delivery services in areas where other pizza places will not. Happy's Pizza started with one restaurant in Detroit, and grew to a large pizza restaurant chain. [2]
In 2010, federal agents raided the company's headquarters. [7] On July 16, 2013, Happy Asker and five other shareholders were indicted on counts of fraud and tax evasion. The Office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan alleged Asker and the others came up with a scheme to under-report taxable income and payroll taxes from $2.1 million in wages from more than 50 Happy's Pizza locations in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere. They were charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, filing false income tax returns, and corrupt endeavor to obstruct IRS laws. The defendants charged with conspiracy faced up to five years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Those charged with filing false tax returns and obstruction faced to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. [8] In July 2015, Asker was found guilty on all charges and was sentenced to over four years in prison and ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution. The other four pleaded guilty. Maher Bashi, the pizza chain's chief operating officer, was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $620,297. Two franchisees were given prison sentences, while a third received three years probation. [9]
Wesley Trent Snipes is an American actor and martial artist. Snipes has made films in a variety of genres, such as numerous thrillers, dramatic feature films, and comedies, though he is best known for his action films. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his work in The Waterdance (1992) and won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his performance in the film One Night Stand (1997).
Arthur L. Farnsworth is an American politician and convicted tax protester. Evidence found by the government in Farnsworth's case helped the government indict actor Wesley Snipes on tax charges.
Paul Vario was an American mobster and made man in the Lucchese crime family. Vario was a caporegime and had his own crew of mobsters in Brooklyn, New York. Following the testimony of Henry Hill, Vario was convicted in 1984, of fraud, and sentenced to four years in prison, followed by a conviction for extortion in 1985, and an additional sentence of 10 years in prison. He died on May 3, 1988, of respiratory failure in prison.
Diane Lynn Kroupa is an American attorney who served as a federal judge of the United States Tax Court from 2003 until 2014. Kroupa previously was the Chief Judge of the Minnesota Tax Court. Following her criminal conviction in U.S. District Court for a tax-related crime, she was sentenced to 34 months in prison. She has since been released from prison.
The KPMG tax shelter fraud scandal involved illegal U.S. tax shelters by KPMG that were exposed beginning in 2003. In early 2005, the United States member firm of KPMG International, KPMG LLP, was accused by the United States Department of Justice of fraud in marketing abusive tax shelters.
A tax protester, in the United States, is a person who denies that he or she owes a tax based on the belief that the Constitution of the United States, statutes, or regulations do not empower the government to impose, assess or collect the tax. The tax protester may have no dispute with how the government spends its revenue. This differentiates a tax protester from a tax resister, who seeks to avoid paying a tax because the tax is being used for purposes with which the resister takes issue.
Grimaldi's Pizzeria is an American pizzeria chain from the New York City area with over 40 restaurants throughout the United States. Its most famous restaurant is under the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn at 1 Front Street, next door to its original location. Zagat Survey rated Grimaldi's the No. 1 Pizzeria in New York in 2007. With a carry-out and delivery service model in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2022 it had 43 restaurants in operation overall. It does not sell slices, only whole pies, which are cooked by coal-fired brick ovens. It also sells wines and appetizers, as well as calzones. Among desserts are cannoli and tiramisu, as well as New York–style cheesecake.
James Galante is an American convicted felon and associate of the Genovese crime family, owner of the defunct Danbury Trashers minor-league hockey team and a defunct racecar team fielding cars for Ted Christopher, and ex-CEO of Automated Waste Disposal (AWD), a company that holds waste disposal contracts for most of western Connecticut and Westchester and Putnam counties in New York.
Eddie Ray Kahn is an American tax protester. Kahn is currently in prison for tax crimes, with a tentative release date of 2026. Kahn founded the group American Rights Litigators and ran the for-profit businesses "Guiding Light of God Ministries" and "Eddie Kahn and Associates." According to the U.S. Justice Department, all three organizations are or were illegal tax evasion operations.
Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the United States federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating potential criminal violations of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes, such as money laundering, currency transaction violations, tax-related identity theft fraud and terrorist financing that adversely affect tax administration. While other federal agencies also have investigative jurisdiction for money laundering and some Bank Secrecy Act violations, IRS-CI is the only federal agency that can investigate potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code, in a manner intended to foster confidence in the tax system and deter violations of tax law. Criminal Investigation is a division of the Internal Revenue Service, which in turn is a bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury.
John "Porky" Zancocchio is an American mobster and former Consigliere with the Bonanno crime family who is a loanshark and a bookmaker.
Anthony A. Graziano was an American mobster and consigliere in the Bonanno crime family.
Oliver Leon Robinson Jr is a retired American basketball player who played shooting guard for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs.
Anthony "Tony Jack" Joseph Giacalone, also known as Tony Jocks, was a Sicilian-American organized crime figure in Detroit. He served as a capo in the Detroit Partnership, and later as a street boss. In terms of Mafia organization, he was listed by the FBI in 1963 as one of the “Big Men” and deemed an administrator or heir apparent. He came to public notice during the 1970s investigations into the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, as he was one of two Mafia members – the other being Anthony Provenzano – that Hoffa had arranged to meet on the day he disappeared. In 1976, Giacalone was sentenced to 10 years in prison for tax evasion. He died of natural causes on February 23, 2001.
Bradley Charles Birkenfeld is an American private banker, convicted felon, and whistleblower. During the mid- to late-2000s, he made a series of disclosures about UBS Group AG clients, in violation of Swiss banking secrecy laws, to the U.S. government alleging possible tax evasion. Known as the 2007 "Birkenfeld Disclosure", the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had reached a deferred prosecution agreement with UBS that resulted in a US$780 million fine and the release of previously privileged information on American tax evaders.
Under the federal law of the United States of America, tax evasion or tax fraud is the purposeful illegal attempt of a taxpayer to evade assessment or payment of a tax imposed by Federal law. Conviction of tax evasion may result in fines and imprisonment. Compared to other countries, Americans are more likely to pay their taxes on time and law-abidingly.
The Swiss investment bank and financial services company, UBS Group AG, has been at the center of numerous tax evasion and avoidance investigations undertaken by U.S., French, German, Israeli, and Belgian tax authorities as a consequence of their strict banking secrecy practices.
The Wyatt Family was featured on the American reality TV show American Guns. Rich Wyatt ran a gun store called Gunsmoke Guns which was the main setting for the American Guns show. He operated the store with his family: Renee his wife, his stepdaughter Paige Wyatt, and his stepson Kurt Wyatt, along with the many other employees of Gunsmoke. The store lost its firearms license in April 2012, though continued to trade allegedly booking the sales whilst directing purchasers to another store to fill in checks and complete the sale. Rich Wyatt was found guilty of charges related to this activity and tax evasion in 2017, and was sentenced to 78 months in prison.