Cigarette Smuggler Guilty of Mail-Order Scam

In a shocking case of cigarette smuggling, Joseph Ruda, 62, of Rockville Center, New York, pleaded guilty to shipping untaxed cigarettes from New York to Kentucky.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony M. Bruce, Ruda was part of a scheme to ship over 58,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes to Kentucky, resulting in a loss of nearly $175,000 in excise taxes.

The scheme, which involved Ruda’s company, Gutlove and Shirvint, Inc., used the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation as a front to resell the cigarettes in bulk to bootleggers, who then sold them in New York City.

The scheme resulted in a loss of over $1,440,000 to the New York State Office of Finance and Taxation.

Ruda faces six months in prison and his company, Gutlove and Shirvint, Inc., faces a fine of up to $250,000. The company previously made restitution of $1,446,000 to New York State.

Ruda and his company also agreed to forfeit their profits from the scheme, including a $600,000 monetary judgment and a $325,000 cash payment to the government.

The pleas are the result of a joint investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

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