A store owner who cashed fraudulent checks was recently sentenced to 10 months in prison and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine.

Asafak B. Bhura owned and operated Nafisa LLC, and later BAB Enterprise LLC, a convenience store in Middletown. The store was registered with the U.S. Department of Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as a money service business that sold money wire services and money orders to the public for fees. The store was not licensed by the state of Connecticut to be a check cashier, which would permit the store to cash checks for a fee greater than 50 cents per check.

In response to an IRS Service Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Audit in April 2010, Bhura adopted an anti-money laundering program and check cashing policies and procedures for his store. The procedures listed the acceptable forms of identification of those seeking to cash a check and required the collection and verification of the customer’s information, including addresses, home telephone number and place of employment, along with a copy or scan of the cashed checks.

Bhura accepted and cashed 126 U.S. Treasury tax refund checks totaling $787,187.17 for an individual between March 2012 and June 2012. He did not properly identify the individual and the checks were not made payable to that individual. Additionally, he deposited the checks into his personal bank accounts, rather than the store’s business operating accounts.

The investigation revealed that the checks were federal tax refund checks that others fraudulently obtained through the filing of federal income tax returns containing stolen or fraudulently obtained personal identifying information.

Bhura received and kept a 5 percent fee for cashing the 126 checks, which amounted to $39,359. He has paid restitution in that amount to the IRS. He pleaded guilty to attempting to interfere with the administration of Internal Revenue laws on May 10, 2017.