Falsified invoices alleged

One of the Omaha area’s largest liquor wholesalers allegedly falsified sales invoices to evade state taxes, retain sales contracts and obtain bonuses from liquor companies by meeting sales targets, according to records filed in Douglas County Court.

The documents were used to obtain a search warrant for last week’s raid of Sterling Distributing Co. by the Nebraska State Patrol and the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission.

In a request for the warrant that was unsealed this week, authorities said they had probable cause “that evidence of forgery, tax fraud, and entering false statements and entries into the books’’ would be found at Sterling.

The company allegedly sold $762,316.83 worth of liquor and wine to Omaha-area stores on 154 false invoices. Yet each store said it never saw the products Sterling had claimed to deliver, court documents said.

No charges have been filed in the case.

Efforts on Friday night to reach Sterling manager Anthony Windingstad for comment on the allegations were unsuccessful.

Troopers seized documents and computer records after serving the search warrant April 21 at the southwest Omaha warehouse near 96th and J Streets.

Authorities said Sterling officials paid state taxes on each alleged sale but later claimed that the products were returned — thereby allowing the company to recoup thousands in excise taxes.

An informant told investigators that Sterling created false invoices to push up sales of Yellow Tail and retain its contract with the winery.

Additionally, investigators allege that the falsified sales prompted liquor giant Diageo Brands — manufacturer of Hennessy, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan and others — to pay $172,140 worth of incentives to Sterling in February for the company’s booming sales.

The investigation into Sterling began in December, authorities said, when a tipster left a message with the liquor commission alleging that the company had created “bogus’’ sales invoices to show sales of roughly 30,000 gallons of liquor that month.

The caller said company officials could receive bonuses of up to $250,000 if they hit certain sales quotas, court documents said. A commission investigator launched an inquiry into Sterling, requesting a retail sales report for the last week of December from the company.

The State Patrol joined the probe in April, when an anonymous Sterling employee shared documents to “cover themselves,” the search warrant affidavit said.