Restaurateur faces new tax fraud charges

BOSTON — A Middletown, N.Y., man who was already facing tax fraud charges has now been indicted in a second tax fraud case, according to federal prosecutors.

Hazrat Khan, 56, owns chicken restaurants in the Boston, Mass., area.

On Aug. 18, he was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Massachusetts on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and 11 counts of willful failure to account for and pay taxes. He faced similar charges in an indictment filed in April involving Crown Fried Chicken restaurants in the Boston area.

In the new case, Khan is charged with concealing his ownership interest in a New York Fried Chicken restaurant in Hyde Park, Mass., and providing tax preparers with false information about payroll and income. He’s charged with falsely reporting the number of workers, some of whom were undocumented immigrants, and wages paid; with paying workers off the books; and with filing income tax returns that misrepresented information including sales, income, salaries and wages.

Khan has been free on $100,000 bond in the prior case.