Gun Dealer Pleads Guilty to Evading Taxes on Weapons Sales
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SANTA ANA — An Orange County firearms dealer pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to evading $33,000 in federal excise taxes on the importing and sales of millions of dollars worth of weapons from 1991 through 1994.
Donald Mitchell, 65, of Fountain Valley, had been charged with evading more than $500,000 in federal taxes. He pleaded guilty to a single count of tax evasion involving the lesser amount after admitting to District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler that he deliberately did not pay the $500,000.
Mitchell has operated Mitchell Arms Inc. in Santa Ana for the past 10 years and has been in the gun business for more than four decades, federal officials said.
He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and repayment of the unpaid taxes. Sentencing is scheduled for April 15.
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