Restaurant and club owner sentenced

The former owner of a Detroit strip club and of a Walled Lake restaurant will spend two years in a federal prison for financial crimes, a judge ordered Tuesday.

Johni Semma, of Walled Lake, was sentenced to a term of two years in prison on convictions for employment tax fraud and failing to file his individual income tax return, Principle Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Zuckerman announced. Duckerman works within the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

Semma owned Bayside Sports Bar and Grill in Walled Lake as well as a Detroit strip club, The Coliseum, and the charges he faced stemmed from tax issues related to his business management. Besides the prison term, Semma must also pay a restitution of more than $1.79 million, U. S. District Court Judge Paul Borman ordered. In the summer of 2018, Summa was indicted by a grand jury on 24 counts related to tax issues. The allegations against Summa included:

• Between 2008 and 2015, he failed to file 27 out of 29 employment tax returns with the IRS,

• He failed to pay about $1.3 million in employment taxes,

• After selling The Coliseum in 2013 for $5.9 million, he did not file an income tax return or pay taxes for that year, causing an additional $463,000 tax loss to the IRS.

Ult imately, Semma pleaded guilty to two charges in August of 2019.