EKB News

KENTUCKY....
Executives from Farmer's Tobacco, a Kentucky cigarette manufacturer, have admitted they failed to properly report sales of millions of dollars worth of cigarettes to avoid paying taxes. Farmer's president, 69 year old year old Robert Ammerman of Falmouth and his son, 47 year old Mike Ammerman of Cynthiana, vice president and chief of operations, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Mississippi. The Ammermans schemed with Charles Wells, a tobacco wholesaler from Hopkinsville who pleaded guilty in May to lying about cigarette sales so he could avoid paying taxes. Wells supplied the Ammermans with raw tobacco. In return, they made VB and Kentucky's Best brand cigarettes "off the books" and sold them to Wells at below the usual cost and falsely reported the number of cigarettes they sold to Wells. The Ammermans face up to three years in prison and have agreed to forfeit to the government $8 million in cash, which represents the proceeds of their illegal activity.