A Duluth business owner 57-year-old Shimon Shaked the owner of multiple T-shirt and souvenir stores in Canal Park has been charged with tax evasion. Back in 2020, he was in court in Minneapolis accused of evading more than $800,000 worth of income tax.

His stores in Duluth include I Love Duluth, I Love Duluth 2, Up North-The Good Life, and Lake Life, and another souvenir store in Marquette, Michigan. The U.S. Attorney's Office of Minnesota stated that Shaked had his teenage daughter listed as the nominal owner of his holding company in order to hide the income he made from his businesses.

While he did report credit card sales he failed to pay taxes on his cash sales. According to Bring Me The News the U.S. Attorney's Office said "To further conceal his income, Shaked used the cash from the unreported cash sales to pay for personal expenses and to pay some of his employees' overtime wages in cash,"

Shaked also used the company bank account to pay for personal experiences, including trying to buy an alligator farm in Florida. And he also hired international and non-international students to work at his stores. Allegedly he paid his employees in cash, to avoided required federal payroll taxes.

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The 'I Love Duluth' store has been a must-stop for tourists and locals alike in the heart of Canal Park at 345 Canal Park Drive for the past 13 years. There is not one square inch of the store that is not filled with T-shorts of all kinds and pretty much every souvenir you can think of. Their website says they are open, but when I tried to call the store today there was no answer and the mailbox is full.

Shaked pleaded guilty to tax evasion in October, and this week was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, and ordered to repay $620,362 in owed taxes.

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