A Hopkinton man was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of tax evasion in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn for failing to pay excise taxes on vaping products he sold at his businesses.

Ashraf Youssef, 62, was the owner of AAA Smoke & Vape Shop in Marlborough from 2020-22, along with similar establishments in Sudbury and Whitinsville. During that time, the defendant repeatedly purchased electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), also known as vaping products or vapes, from four different out-of-state distributors. The invoices stated that Youssef was responsible for paying the excise taxes on the products.

A joint investigation by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts Department of Revenue Criminal Investigations Bureau discovered that Youssef paid no excise taxes on the vaping products over those three years.

Based on information compiled from invoices, bank records and delivery records, Youssef was accused of failing to pay $467,828 in electronic nicotine delivery systems excise taxes. The excise tax for electronic nicotine delivery systems is imposed by General Laws Chapter 64C, section 7E, according to a press release Monday from the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.

Youssef was sentenced to one year in the Middlesex Jail & House of Correction in Billerica, with parole eligibility in six months, as well as five years probation. Assistant District Attorney Whitney Williams prosecuted this case.

Youssef had been arraigned on June 18, 2024. The case originally was scheduled to be prosecuted on July 9, 2024. A trial date had been set for Dec. 16, 2024, but the guilty plea negated a trial.

Previous court cases exist against Youssef

This is not the first time Youssef has faced charges in court. In 2013, Youssef and Maged M. Askandar, his nephew, were accused of selling cocaine-laced bath salts out of a Sudbury gas station Youssef owned, according to a newspaper article. Askandar worked at Valero’s gas station as a clerk. Both men lived at the same address on West Main Street.

Both men pleaded not guilty to trafficking in cocaine, possession of bath salts, distribution of cocaine, possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, distribution of drug paraphernalia and conspiracy to violate the state’s drug laws.

There also were two prior small claims court claims made against Youssef, one in 2015 and the other in 2020, according to the masscourts.org website. The plaintiff in the 2015 case filed a notice of dismissal the day after a magistrate hearing on March 16, 2015. In the 2020 case, a judgment was made in Youseff’s favor on Feb. 23, 2021.