Pizzarama Owner Charged With Embezzling City Tax Collections
City of Fairfax Police have charged the owner of a City business establishment with embezzlement for failure pay City of Fairfax meals tax collections totaling nearly $26,000 between December 12, 2006 and June 28, 2010. Cindi Azzouz, 35, owner of Pizzarama at 9639 Fairfax Boulevard, was charged with five felony counts of embezzlement (Section 18.2-111 of the Code of Virginia). She was taken into custody at the restaurant on December 17, 2010 and subsequently released on $20,000 bond. Each charge represented a six-month period during which Azzouz had failed to remit City of Fairfax meals taxes which had been collected at the restaurant.
The Criminal Investigations Division initiated an investigation on June 28, 2010 on the basis of a complaint from the office of the City of Fairfax Treasurer that despite repeated notices from the City Azzouz had made only sporadic payments of the City meals tax her restaurant was required to collect. Reports of meals taxes collected are required to be submitted along with the funds to the City on a monthly basis, which Azzouz had failed to do. State law specifies that collected taxes are held in trust by the seller until remitted to the City and the theft of such funds constitutes embezzlement. During execution of a search warrant at the restaurant on November 5, 2010, $4000 in cash was seized, which will revert to the City
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