The Owner Of A Few Popular Stores In Duluth Has Been Charged With Tax Evasion

56 year old Shimon Shaked has been accused of evading more than $800,000 worth of income tax and was charged in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis yesterday with tax evasion, failure to file a tax return and failure to account for and pay employment tax.

Shaked owns multiple souvenir type stores in Canal Park including I Love Duluth, I Love Duluth 2, Up North-The Good Life and The Lake Life. According to Bring Me The News "Shaked operated the stores under a holding company he owned, ALMS18, LLC. But he listed his 18-year-old daughter as the nominal owner of the stores to evade taxes, the U.S. Attorney's Office says."

According to the U.S. attorneys office Shaked operated the stores under a holding company, but listed his 18 year old daughter as the nominal owner of the stores to evade taxes. In more court documents Shaked did not report the income from the stores as his but instead listed the income under his daughters tax returns from 2013 to 2015. He also further evaded taxes to the IRS by reporting credit card sales only and not any cash sales.

In further court documents it is reported that in total Shaked failed to report a total of $4 million dollars. He also was found to have hired international and non international students at his stores and paid his employees in cash avoiding to pay payroll taxes.

Like many of us locals I have played tourist and stopped into those shops many times and always noticed the racks of clothing items that he has displayed out on the sidewalk in front of one of his stores. I could spend lot's of time looking at some of the quirky items along with the massive amount of different clothing items from t-shirts, sweatshirts and socks to coffee mugs, bags and pretty much anything else you can logo to promote Duluth. None of the websites are active for any of the stores and the "I Love Duluth"  Facebook page has not been updated since 2013.