Beltsville

The owner-operator of a cosmetics company in Beltsville pleaded guilty Thursday to income tax evasion, prosecutors said. Bae Soo "Chris" Chon, 49, funneled revenue from Mirage Cosmetics Inc. into foreign bank accounts in Hong Kong and Seoul and understated his income on his personal income tax returns in 2008 and 2009, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland said in a statement. Mirage manufactured cosmetics at a facility on Tucker Street in Beltsville and then sold the products in the United States at chain stores, including Walgreens, Target and Costco, the statement said.

Vocus , a Beltsville digital marketing company that's growing fast, has a number of useful services for marketers and public relations pros. One of them is PRWeb, a news release service that disseminates business announcements all over the web. The company is pretty serious about growing its business and snagging a piece of the digital marketing services market. I recently wrote a profile of it in The Sun. But the company is now catching a lot of heat for letting a fraudulent press release slip through.

County police arrested a Beltsville man Saturday and charged him with stealing a videocassette recorder worth nearly $350 from a Best Buy store in Annapolis.Gary Lynn Sutton, 38, of the 7500 block of Ridgewell Court was charged with felony theft.Kevin Day, a security officer in the 100 block of Defense Highway told police that he saw a man carrying an empty VCR box in the store about 10 p.m.The man told a clerk at the door that he was returning the VCR, and the clerk gave the man a sticker that read, "paid," to put on the box so that the man could take the box into the store, police said.

Baltimore prep basketball star Aquille Carr is on the move again, this time back to Maryland, where he plans to play his senior season at Princeton Day Academy in Beltsville, said the school's coach, Van Whitfield. Just last week, the two-time Baltimore Sun All-Metro Player of the Year enrolled at Arlington Country Day, a private basketball power in Jacksonville, Fla., according to that school's coach, Rex Morgan. But Whitfield said Carr merely visited Arlington Country Day before deciding it was too far from home.

County police have issued an arrest warrant for a Beltsville man charged with shooting a Freetown man early Sunday during an argument, authorities said yesterday.Police said Derrick Lamont Jones, 25, whose address was not disclosed, told them that he and another man had been drinking together Saturday night. The other man came to Mr. Jones' girlfriend's house in the 7800 block of Shirley Murphy Court shortly before 3:30 a.m., and the two began arguing, police said.The other man pulled out a .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun after the two argued and fired at Mr. Jones as he ran down the stairs, striking him in the waist, police said.

A Beltsville man was in fair condition at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center yesterday after being stabbed during an argument with an acquaintance in Millersville, county police said.Matthew Lovett, 23, told police he was stabbed after arguing about a personal matter with Nathan G. Brown III about 2 a.m. outside the man's home in the first block of Nancy Ave.Police said Mr. Lovett was stabbed three times in the back and the right hand as he tried to run to the nearby Knollwood Nursing Home for help.

A 50-year-old Beltsville woman died yesterday after the car her husband was driving hit the right shoulder barrier of southbound Interstate 95 near the Patapsco River, state police said.The stretch of I-95 south near the Baltimore County line was shut down between 1:19 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. as emergency vehicles and a helicopter arrived. Sharon Jean Sweeney of the 4200 block of Taunton Road was pronounced dead at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center about 4 p.m., police said.John Douglas Sweeney, who was driving the 1987 Chevrolet Celebrity station wagon, was following a gray 1979 Cadillac that headed off the road because of a flat tire.

Baltimore prep basketball star Aquille Carr is on the move again, this time back to Maryland, where he plans to play his senior season at Princeton Day Academy in Beltsville, said the school's coach, Van Whitfield. Just last week, the two-time Baltimore Sun All-Metro Player of the Year enrolled at Arlington Country Day, a private basketball power in Jacksonville, Fla., according to that school's coach, Rex Morgan. But Whitfield said Carr merely visited Arlington Country Day before deciding it was too far from home.

Christopher R. McCleary, the man widely credited with transforming Digex Inc. of Beltsville from a small regional Internet service provider into a company with a national reach, is stepping down.McCleary, 45, said yesterday that he would resign from the company by the end of the year. His posts at Digex -- president and chief executive officer -- are being eliminated by Digex's new parent, Intermedia Communications Inc.The Tampa, Fla.-based telecommunications company, which bought Digex in July for $150 million, said the president and CEO posts at Digex are being eliminated as part of the merger.

Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services, which provides pipeline infrastructure and building materials for the construction industry, is moving an operations center that will employ about 100 workers from Beltsville to a redeveloped warehouse in Southeast Baltimore. Construction is to start at the Holabird Industrial Park on Monday to redevelop the 15-acre site of the former Lesaffre Yeast Corp. manufacturing plant, which closed in late 2005. Principals of Baltimore brokerage firm Corridor Reznick LLC acquired the property for $2 million in December 2006 and have been doing environmental cleanup and marketing, Michael B. Glick, chairman of Corridor Reznick LLC, said yesterday.

The owner-operator of a cosmetics company in Beltsville pleaded guilty Thursday to income tax evasion, prosecutors said. Bae Soo "Chris" Chon, 49, funneled revenue from Mirage Cosmetics Inc. into foreign bank accounts in Hong Kong and Seoul and understated his income on his personal income tax returns in 2008 and 2009, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland said in a statement. Mirage manufactured cosmetics at a facility on Tucker Street in Beltsville and then sold the products in the United States at chain stores, including Walgreens, Target and Costco, the statement said.

The Laurel Historical Society continued its Tasting Laurel series on Oct. 11 with a presentation on the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and the history of agriculture in Laurel and the surrounding Prince George's County. The discussion was presented by environmental issues consultant John Peter Thompson, who guided attendees through a history of the National Agricultural Farm, which has many roots in Prince George's County, to the current state of BARC, which is located a little south of Laurel.

Vocus Inc. is hiring hundreds of people, betting big that it will become a leading digital marketing firm for small and medium-sized businesses. The Beltsville-based technology company is on track to hire around 500 people this year at its headquarters and other locations. And it intends to hire at least 200 more next year, company officials said. Vocus CEO Rick Rudman calls online and social media marketing a multi-billion-dollar opportunity, as businesses shift spending from traditional media, such as television and print, to digital.

Sinful Colors, a Revlon-owned nail-polish line, is warning state regulators of 117 layoffs in Beltsville as it closes the Prince George's County facility next year. The layoffs, set to begin Jan. 1, appear to be the Maryland manufacturing cuts that Revlon said in September would be coming as part of a global reorganization eliminating 250 jobs. The company would not say then how many layoffs would hit Maryland, or where its local manufacturing operations were located. State officials and a number of local economic development representatives said they didn't know the facility's location — even the Prince George's County Economic Development Corp.

A 35-year-old Beltsville man was being sought Sunday by Howard County Police for allegedly shooting his estranged girlfriend and one of her friends during a suspected domestic dispute at an Ellicott City spa on Saturday, according to police. Tuan Minh Pham, of the 11900 block of Beltsville Drive, has been charged with two counts each of first-degree attempted murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault, as well as reckless endangerment and multiple gun charges in the incident, police said.

The Vansville Elementary School PTA will hold its second annual winter bazaar fundraiser on Saturday, Dec. 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the school, 6813 Ammendale Road, in Beltsville.

State and private losses from the tornado that slashed through Prince George's and Howard counties Monday evening totaled more than $31.7 million, state officials estimated last night. The losses included an estimated $15 million at the University of Maryland, College Park, private residences valued at $4.5 million in Laurel and elsewhere in Prince George's County, $1.2 million in lost or damaged vehicles, $4 million worth of Potomac-Electric Power Co. utility poles and lines, and $5 million worth of damaged landscaping and lost trees.

Sheldon Myrie used to steer clear of a back room at his Beltsville workplace after he learned that federal officials discovered trace amounts of asbestos that had traveled there from a Montana mine. "They said there was nothing to worry about, but I thought hopefully there was nothing that could kill me back there because I have young children to take care of," said Myrie, who works for Atlantic Transportation Equipment Ltd., which has since moved to a nearby building. The now abandoned shop in a Prince George's County industrial park was one of more than 200 sites from New York to Hawaii where asbestos-tainted vermiculite was shipped or processed and used for insulation, fireproofing and fertilizer.

SunEdison LLC, one of the nation's largest providers of solar energy services, said at a news conference with California's governor Monday that it had moved its headquarters from Beltsville to California's Silicon Valley. The news was announced by California Gov. Jerry Brown, who said in a statement that the company would bring 200 employees from Maryland to Belmont, Calif. SunEdison also pledged to create 300 new jobs over the next five years. Brown attributed the company's decision to relocate to a tax relief law geared toward solar energy firms that was passed this summer.

The long-awaited Laurel-Beltsville Senior Activity Center, 7120 Contee Road, officially opens Friday, Aug. 26 at an invitation-only ribbon cutting. The center will be open to the public Monday, Aug. 29. To become a center member, apply for a membership card at the front desk. Prince George's County and Montgomery County residents ages 60 and up receive a free ID, which provides access to the fitness room, fireside lounge, billiards room and more. Out-of-county residents and those ages 50 to 59 can join the center by paying a nominal fee. A wide variety of classes will be offered seasonally, and registration is through the automated SMARTlink registration system.