Strip Club Owner Charged With Tax Evasion By IRS

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 15, 2010 4:30PM

Chances seem good that if you run a strip club you're going to run afoul of the IRS eventually. So don't give them a hand by hiding $12 million in cash in a warehouse for them to find. That was the first domino that eventually led to charges against Michael G. Wellek. Wellek ran Heavenly Bodies in Elk Grove ViIllage, the Skybox in Harvey and Cowboys in Markham (true story: once upon a time during our bartending years a few dancers from Cowboys crashed the stage at one of the final gigs at HotHouse on Balbo, loudly proclaiming that Cowboys had "the finest bitches in the south suburbs;" they were anything but.), had $12 million in cash seized from an Elk Grove Village Warehouse seven years ago.

Wellek is charged with failure to file personal income tax returns from 1989-1999, and lying and obstructing IRS agents as they pursued their investigation.Court records show Wellek claimed he had the go-ahead to claim the money when he deposited it, not when it was earned. An argument the feds found risible.