Former Crafty Beer Guys manager Kristian Pedersen and employee Janna Donohue have pleaded guilty to felony charges in a case involving sales taxes collected from customers at the Huntersville bottle shop. Pedersen pleaded guilty to charges tied to concealing more than $600,000 in sales tax, while Donohue pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.
Guilty Pleas Close Out Huntersville Case
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced that former Crafty Beer Guys manager Kristian Pedersen and employee Janna Donohue pleaded guilty to charges in the case, according to Queen City News. Pedersen, who served as president and manager of CBG Draft Services and Crafty Beer Guys between 2019 and 2022, pleaded guilty to four felony counts of aiding and abetting the embezzlement of state property and one felony count of obstruction of justice. Donohue pleaded guilty to a single felony count of obstruction of justice. Investigators say Pedersen embezzled more than $600,000 in North Carolina sales tax during that period, and that he and Donohue altered QuickBooks records to conceal sales tax charged to and collected from customers. Pedersen has since repaid $614,334.95 to the state, according to the report. The pair were indicted in October 2025. Pedersen also owns Valhalla Pub and Eatery in uptown Charlotte.
Second Case Involves Salud Beer Shop Owner
The Huntersville case follows a separate prosecution involving Jason Scott Glunt, owner of Salud Beer Shop, who pleaded guilty to nine counts of embezzlement of state property. Glunt was arrested in July 2025 and accused of aiding and abetting the business in embezzling almost $443,000 in state and county sales taxes over seven years, according to WBTV. He was placed under a $150,000 bond in Wake County at the time of his arrest. The North Carolina Department of Revenue later confirmed that Glunt entered his guilty plea in the state tax case earlier this month.
The North Carolina Department of Justice highlighted convictions involving two Charlotte-area bars. Queen City News reported that three convictions resulted in $1.06 million in repayments to the state; that aggregate figure is not established as repayment by the two Crafty Beer Guys defendants alone. Pedersen's reported repayment was $614,334.95.
Who Investigated and Prosecuted the Cases
The Department of Revenue's Criminal Investigations Division investigated the tax fraud cases, while the Department of Justice's Special Prosecutions Section handled the prosecutions, the report notes. That division-of-labor mirrors how North Carolina has pursued similar embezzlement cases against hospitality businesses in recent years.
An earlier case involved Raed Abel Amra, president of Tobacco Road Sports Cafe, who was indicted in March 2023 on 15 counts of aiding and abetting the embezzlement of state property, according to The News & Observer. Amra was alleged to have helped his businesses embezzle more than $1.6 million in North Carolina sales and use tax between October 2012 and December 2019. The chain operated locations in Durham and Raleigh at the time; its Chapel Hill location had already closed. In a separate, smaller 2023 case, the North Carolina Department of Justice secured an order requiring a defendant to pay $94,510.69 in restitution to the Department of Revenue.
Other North Carolina Restaurant Tax Cases
The cases involved different charges, locations and outcomes. The North Carolina Department of Revenue said Raed Abdel Karim Amra pleaded guilty on July 23, 2025, in Wake County Superior Court to 15 felony state tax charges involving Tobacco Road Sports Café locations in Durham, Raleigh and a former Chapel Hill location: the department’s announcement. In a separate New Hanover County case, restaurant owner Marteke Latwuan Franks pleaded guilty on August 18, 2025, to five counts of Embezzlement of State Property and was ordered to pay $79,894.22 in restitution, according to the department.
The Huntersville and Charlotte cases add to a pattern of North Carolina tax authorities pursuing owners and managers of bars, pubs and beverage shops for allegedly pocketing sales tax collected from customers rather than remitting it to the state.
