TOLEDO, Ohio — A Perrysburg man was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to filing false tax returns and wire fraud that defrauded educational and government entities, the Department of Justice said.
Jacques Eid, 56, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He was also fined $797,151.38 and ordered to pay restitution to the following: U.S. Department of Education, $14,760; Notre Dame Academy, $13,450; St. John's Jesuit High School, $30,000; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, $223,575.69.
According to the DOJ, Eid pleaded guilty in March to the offenses and admitted to filing false tax returns with the IRS by underreporting taxable income of nearly $880,000 earned when he was the owner of Madison Market and a restaurant, Le Pam Pam, in Toledo from 2012-2018.
Before sentencing, Eid paid all taxes and penalties owed to the IRS resulting from his tax offenses.
The DOJ said Eid also admitted to falsifying his income on the U.S. Department of Education's Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for one of his children. According to the Department of Justice, that was then used to determine aid packages at the University of Toledo and the University of Dayton, resulting in fraudulently obtaining more than $11,000 in Pell Grants and $3,000 in Federal Supplemental Opportunity grants for college.
Eid also falsified his income when seeking financial assistance for his children at St. John's Jesuit High School and Notre Dame Academy. The DOJ said he received more than $40,000 collectively and said if accurate income, assets and net worth had been reported on applications, his children would not have been entitled to receive financial aid.
According to the DOJ, Eid also admitted to submitting a false application for his convenience store to become an authorized retailer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture SNAP Food Stamp Program by falsely stating that his spouse was the sole owner of the store, even though Eid was the true owner of the business. The DOJ said he attempted to hide his ownership of the store so that it could accept food stamps.
Eid was disqualified as a program retailer due to a prior conviction in 2003 for illegal use of food stamps or WIC program benefits. The DOJ said from 2008 to 2021, he operated Madison Market "under the false pretense that he was not the owner."
As a result, the Department of Justice said the store received more than $1 million in SNAP benefits, resulting in at least $220,000 in unlawful profits to the store.
