H&H Bagels Owner Going To Jail

H&H Bagels Owner Helmer Toro Gets 50 Weekends in Jail for Grand Larceny - Bloomberg.com

The owner of H&H Bagels, a bagel store on New York City’s Upper West Side, was sentenced to 50 weekends in jail after failing to pay more than $500,000 in employee withholding and unemployment insurance taxes.

“The court will impose the promised sentence,” New York state judge Juan M. Merchan told H&H Bagels’ Helmer Toro in his lower Manhattan courtroom today. The judge also ordered restitution.

Toro, 59, failed to turn over $337,261 withheld from the paychecks of employees at his bagel business from 2003 to 2009, according to his May plea agreement. Toro also evaded $206,151 in unemployment-insurance taxes between 2006 and 2009. As part of the agreement, Toro must make the restitution totaling $543,413.

H&H Bagels, called “legendary” by the travel guide Fodor’s, is located on Broadway near 80th Street. The retailer and wholesaler’s flagship baking location is on West 46th Street near 12th Avenue. Its tagline is “Like no other bagel in the world.”