ALBANY - New York State Department of Taxation and Finance Commissioner Robert Megna announced Wednesday that the owner of a defunct Allegany County restaurant has been arrested on felony tax charges.

Ruben Santiago, of 18 W. Main Street, Cuba, N.Y., the former owner of the Cuba Main Street Bistro, which closed in January, was arrested Tuesday and appeared before Town of Cuba Justice James M. Keough on felony sales tax charges.

Santiago is accused of stealing approximately $46,000 in state and local sales taxes collected from his customers but never paid over to the State. It is alleged that to commit this larceny, Santiago failed to report more than $540,000.00 in the bistro's taxable sales from March 1, 2005 to February 29, 2008.

The underreporting of sales was revealed when Tax Department personnel examined bank accounts of the business that showed deposits of receipts and taxes that were never reported.

In addition to the larceny charge, Santiago faces multiple felony and misdemeanor charges for filing false sales tax returns which underreported his taxable sales in 2005, and nine misdemeanor counts for failing to file any tax returns for sales made in the period from December 1, 2005 to February 29, 2008. The top charge filed against Santiago of Grand Larceny in the 3rd Degree is a class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.