FRAUD PLEA

A town man has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges related to his role in a defrauding the state of mil- lions of dollars in taxes, the Department of Justice said.

Rishi Malik, 46, of Fairfield, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to violate the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act and one count of wire fraud.

The first charge carries a maximum term of five years in prison and the second a maximum prison term of 20 years.

Court documents show that for several years, until 2012, Malik and a partner operated Connecticut Discounts, a tobacco wholesale business based in Bridgeport.

In June 2012, Malik sold Connecticut Discounts to Pavan Vaswani, who continued to run the business.

From Jan. 2013 to April 2017, the business acquired millions of dollars of tobacco products from suppliers in Pennsylvania and distributed them to hundreds of customers in Connecticut but reported a fraction of sales to the state Department of Revenue Services.

There were no tax payments to the state between 2014 and 2017, the DOJ said.

Authorities arrested Malik and Vaswani on Jan. 11. Malik is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 23, 2019.

Vaswani, 40, of West Haven, pleaded guilty to the same charges as Malik. He awaits sentencing.

The two agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $5,821,057. They were each released on bond pending sentencing.