A Southern California man has pleaded guilty to fraudulent more than $5 million from his client and avoiding more than $1 million in taxes.
According to the US Lawyer’s Office, Corona Frank Sun Noah, 64, is a customs broker who works with businesses to ship goods from other countries to the United States.
Noah owns and operates Comis International Inc., a Cerritos-based logistics and supply chain company that provides customs import securities companies, court documents say.
From 2007 to 2019, Noah’s company was a customs import broker for Daiso, a discount chain based in Japan with no place across the US.
Meanwhile, the prosecutors said Noah would provide Daiso with false customs forms and bills to collect false rebates for duties. The form he provided to Daiso was different from that provided to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Through this method, Daiso had overpaid Noah nearly $3.4 million, prosecutors said.
He was charged with fraudulent Daiso in 2022, but continued to fraudulent other clients out of more than $2 million using different schemes.
He collected money from two client companies and instead pocketed the funds instead, instead of paying customs fees. CBP has notified the companies of their outstanding taxes. They asked Noah for an explanation and he sent a false bank statement to show that he had paid the fee.
Prosecutors said Noah also avoided paying federal taxes, causing losses to the IRS of about $2.4 million, continuing to incur penalties and interest.
“After agreeing to the IRS in 2014 that he was owed more than $1 million in taxes, Noah actively avoided the IRS trying to collect the amounts he has paid,” court documents state. “This includes payments for two homes in the name of a former girlfriend, using check cash business to avoid IRS taxation in bank accounts and lying to IRS collection agents, country club members. I spent thousands of dollars on counts, travel and golf purchases.”
On February 7th, Noah pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion and two counts of wire fraud.
The sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 8th, facing up to 20 years in each wire fraud count, and up to five years in federal prisons for tax evasion counts.
The lawsuit was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigation, with assistance from US Customs and Border Protection.
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