Log In


Reset Password
LEHIGH VALLEY WEATHER

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

An Emmaus man has pleaded guilty to failing to make required disposition of funds received at a well-known area restaurant for more than two years, according to court documents.

Louis T. Belletieri, now 73, was charged with not paying a total of $89,340.87 in sales tax between Sept. 20, 2014 and April 20, 2017, for Louie’s Restaurant, 2071 31st. SW, Salisbury Township, according to court documents.

Belletieri faced 32 counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds.

The original criminal complaint was brought by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General in September 2019.

Records available from the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County show six negotiated guilty pleas to misdemeanor 1 charges. Other charges are listed as changed or withdrawn.

Louie’s Restaurant, an Italian bar and restaurant, closed Dec. 31, 2019.

The charges were calculated through a sales and use tax audit conducted by an auditor in the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue who is a certified public accountant, according to court documents.

Court documents list a line item for restitution of $89,340.87

Belletieri received two years probation.

In an earlier media report, in figures provided in court documents, $110,014.14 in sales tax should have been paid in the period from Sept. 20, 2014 to April 20, 2017. The amount reported and paid was found by auditors to be $20,673.27, leaving $89,340.87 unpaid.

The business that would become Louie’s Restaurant originally was located at 1207 Chew Street in Allentown and was then owned by Belletieri’s father. Belletieri’s father owned and ran the business for 50 years, according to court documents.

When the senior Belletieri retired, Louis Belletieri took over the business. The restaurant moved to the Salisbury Township location in 2007, according to an affidavit of probable cause released in September 2019.