Owner of Mystic Pizza Sentenced to One Year in Prison for Tax Evasion

Do you remember that Julia Roberts movie where she worked in a pizza place? The movie was called Mystic Pizza, after the Connecticut pizza shop where it was filmed.

Not surprisingly, the pizza shop became quite the tourist attraction. To this day the restaurant still has a picture of the cast (including Julia Roberts) on their website, as well as Mystic Pizza merchandise (yes, they even sell the movie).

The restaurant is in the news again, but not for a good reason this time.

According to the Connecticut Post, owner John Zelepos was sentenced on Monday to one year in prison for tax evasion. Once he is out of prison, he will have three years of supervised release.

Prosecutors say that Zelepos split more than $330,000 in profits from Mystic Pizza between his personal bank accounts and family member accounts. To cover the income, he then filed false tax returns.