A Lake County business owner whose name surfaced decades ago in a racketeering case against the leader of the Chicago Outfit was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for skirting nearly $2.5 million in federal and state taxes by hiding income through a complex web of companies and trusts.
Anthony Panico, 68, of Libertyville, pleaded guilty earlier this year to income tax evasion, admitting in a plea agreement with prosecutors to hiding nearly $10 million in income from tax collectors over a nine-year period.
In sentencing Panico to two years behind bars, U.S. District Judge John Lee said Panico’s crimes weren’t a one-off act done out of financial desperation, but a “complex, ongoing scheme that took great effort to perpetuate year after year after year.”
Panico is the patriarch of a family empire that includes the Post Time Sports Bar and Grille in Green Oaks, a popular bar that includes video gaming machines and off-track betting, records show.
He’s also made millions in real estate and other ventures, many of which were listed in the names of relatives or other associates to hide the trail of cash, according to prosecutors.
In a sentencing memo filed last month, prosecutors said that despite his growing financial portfolio, Panico stopped filing both state and federal income tax returns in 1992, the same year he was named — but not charged — in a racketeering indictment against Sam “Wings” Carlisi, then the leader of the Chicago Outfit.
According to the charges in the Carlisi case, Panico was tapped by a member of Carlisi’s crew to pay off juice loans from a deadbeat bettor. Carlisi was convicted in 1993 and later died in prison.
In asking for a sentence of probation, Panico’s attorney, Leigh Roadman, called the mention of the Carlisi case a “sideshow,” noting the fact that Panico was never charged likely meant “the government didn’t have the evidence.”
Roadman described Panico as a dedicated family man who has admitted to making mistakes and has already repaid the nearly $2.5 million in back taxes he owed.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick King said sparing Panico from prison “would be nothing short of an outrage” given the breadth and length of his crimes.
Before he was sentenced, Panico issued a brief apology to the court and his family members, saying he’s always tried to be fair and “tried to treat people how I’d like to be treated.”
“I’ve made a lot of bad choices and bad decisions in my life,” he said. “I made this bad choice in not filing returns. … It was a big mistake and I shouldn’t have done it.”
Panico admitted in his plea that he used the hidden income for personal expenses, including college tuition for family members, payments on credit cards and large cash withdrawals.
Also, on multiple occasions, Panico “transferred funds to the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas” while disguising the true reason for the transfer, the plea agreement stated.
In all, Panico earned at least $9.2 million over an eight-year period beginning in 2010, but never filed a personal income tax return for any of those years, according to the plea agreement.
