A judge refused today to snuff out the city’s suit against two alleged cigarette bootleggers accused of evading about $6.5 million in taxes on nearly 450,000 cartons of smokes.
Manhattan federal Judge Barbara Jones ruled that Israel Chavez and his ex-wife, Pam Chavez, can be sued for shipping unstamped butts to New York City buyers even though they aren’t “licensed stamping agents.”
“The case law confirms that distributors of cigarettes, like the Chavez defendants here, may be held liable…for selling unstamped cigarettes directly to New York state or city retailers, regardless of their responsibility to themselves to pay the taxes,” Jones wrote.
Lawyers for the Chavezes didn’t return a request for comment.
bruce.golding@nypost.com