Criminal charges have been dropped against Nicolas Paz, a Springfield restauranter who had been accused of defrauding the state of more than $100,000 in sales tax revenue. But his wife, Amanda Paz, has pleaded guilty to sales tax evasion.
According to court records, Amanda Paz has already paid the state the money it was owed in taxes as part of her plea arrangement. She will be required to serve 60 hours of community service during the next 18 months and will be on probation for two years.
The operators of the popular Springfield restaurant AZ-T-CA Mexican Grill, 2753 Chatham Road, were charged in 2022 by Attorney General Kwame Raoul. The state alleged the restaurant had underreported more than $1 million in sales from January 2015 to October 2019, despite collecting sales tax on all sales.
Initial charges against the pair included theft of government funds over $100,000, a Class X felony, and sales tax evasion, a Class 1 felony. If found guilty of those charges, the defendants could have been sentenced to six to 30 years in prison.
“Since we became aware of our mistakes, we fixed it,” Nicolas Paz told Illinois Times Jan. 13. “You know, we understood that we made an error, we addressed the error, and now we’re focusing to make it better so it doesn’t happen again.”
The case was prosecuted by the Illinois Appellate Prosecutor’s Office. Nicolas Paz was represented by Jason Vincent of Giffin, Winning, Cohen & Bodewes P.C. while Amanda Paz was represented by Mark Wykoff of Wykoff Law Office.
Nicolas Paz declined to discuss his wife’s guilty plea or how charges came to be dropped against him.
“This was a negotiation between we and the state. I say ‘we’ as a business, ‘we’ as a family, ‘we’ as a business together … decisions (were) based off what is best for us,” he said. “What mattered to us was to make it right, to pay for restitution to continue to serve our community (that) we have been serving for the past 19 years. And obviously, to keep our family together.”