Former owner of Longview tobacco business sentenced in tax scheme

The former owner of a Longview tobacco wholesaler was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle for his involvement in a scheme to sell millions of dollars in cigarettes without paying taxes on them.
Robert Stuber, 60, of Reno, Nev., received a sentence of nine months in prison, two years of supervised release and nearly $20.7 million in restitution for conspiracy to traffic in contraband cigarettes and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. He pleaded guilty Feb. 18.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Stuber admitted that between January 2005 and May 2007, his business, Cowlitz Candy & Tobacco Co. Inc. of Longview, sold more than 1 million cartons of contraband cigarettes to the Blue Stilly Smoke Shop near Arlington. Neither Stuber's company nor Blue Stilly paid the more than $20 million applicable state taxes on the cigarettes, thereby retaining larger profits for themselves.
The Washington State Liquor Control Board warned Cowlitz Candy & Tobacco Co. in late 2005 that it had been illegally selling untaxed cigarettes to the Blue Stilly Smoke Shop in Arlington. Still, the Longview company continued to do so in the months that followed, court documents said.
Cowlitz Candy & Tobacco, at 924 15th Ave., even tried to conceal the orders by first shipping its cigarettes to an Oregon warehouse, court documents said. Invoices said falsely that the cigarettes were purchased from a New Mexico distributor.
On May 15, 2007, investigators seized more than 2,000 cartons of cigarettes and more than $275,000 during a search of Cowlitz Candy & Tobacco. Evidence during the search revealed that Cowlitz Candy & Tobacco sold Blue Stilly more than 1,052,751 cartons of contraband cigarettes on which no state tax was ever paid, according to court documents.
At sentencing, U.S. District Judge James L. Robart noted that Stuber "was an integral part in the conspiracy to traffic in contraband cigarettes. ... His good judgment was overcome by the money."
In March 2009, three Stillaguamish Tribal members, who owned and operated Blue Stilly, were sentenced to prison for selling contraband cigarettes and avoiding $25 million in taxes.
The other conspirators — a cigarette broker in California and cigarette distributors in New Mexico and California — have been indicted and are scheduled for trial in June 2010.