Attorney General Jeff Jackson Secures Tax Fraud Convictions Against Two Charlotte-Area Bars, Returning More than $1 Million to the State

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026
Contact: comms@ncdoj.gov
919-538-2809

RALEIGH – Attorney General Jeff Jackson secured convictions in two felony tax fraud cases against two Mecklenburg-area bars this week, securing $1,057,248.99 in repayment to the state of North Carolina.

“This money belonged to the taxpayers, and instead of following the law, these defendants pocketed it for their own use,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “My office will prosecute fraud wherever it occurs, and I’m pleased that our work in this case won back more than $1 million for the state.”

In the first case, Kristian Pedersen pleaded guilty to four felony counts of aiding and abetting the embezzlement of state property and one felony count of obstruction of justice, and Janna Donohue pleaded guilty to one felony count of obstruction of justice. Pedersen also repaid $614,334.95.

Pedersen was president and manager of CBG Draft Services and Crafty Beer Guys in Charlotte. Between 2019 and 2022, he embezzled more than $600,000 in North Carolina sales tax and pocketed the money. Pedersen and Donohue also altered records in the businesses’ QuickBooks accounts to conceal how much in sales tax they charged and collected from customers.

In the second case, Jason Scott Glunt pleaded guilty to nine counts of embezzlement of state property. Glunt owns Salud Beer Shop and Salud Cerveceria in Mecklenburg County, and between 2014 and 20224, he embezzled $442,914.04 in state and county sales taxes instead of collecting and processing those tax collections for the Department of Revenue. Glunt has already repaid $100,000 to the state and will repay the remainder over the next few years.

The Department of Revenue’s Criminal Investigations Division investigated, and the Department of Justice’s Special Prosecutions Section prosecuted both cases.

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