From: InfoZine
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On May 7, 2013, Stoldt pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud and contraband cigarette trafficking from July 1, 2011 to Jan. 28, 2012. Stoldt and his wife operate the Totem Smoke Shop, located on the Tonawanda Seneca Indian Reservation in Basom, N.Y.
Stoldt placed orders for more than $4.1 million of unstamped cigarettes (that is, cigarettes that did not carry the mandated tax stamps because the New York excise tax of $4.35 per pack of cigarettes was not paid) from Gerald E. Barber, 68, of Virginia. Barber was the president of the Seneca-Cayuga Tobacco Company (SCTC) in Grove, Okla., which is a corporation operated by the Seneca Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, a federally recognized Indian tribe. Although SCTC manufactures its own brands of native cigarettes, Barber was interested in selling unstamped and untaxed premium-brand cigarettes to smoke shops on other Indian nations, specifically in the state of New York.
