A Fremont business owner has been hit with a prison sentence and a hefty fine for hiding millions in foreign bank accounts to elude Uncle Sam, the Justice Department said last week. Cuong Chi Quan, who goes by "Roger Quan," is staring down a 10-month prison sentence for his part in a tax evasion scheme that saw nearly $4.5 million in income vanish off the books. According to U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey and IRS-Criminal Investigation's Special Agent in Charge Kareem Carter, Quan's downfall came when he was sentenced by Judge Edward J. Davila of the United States District Court.
Uncovered by federal authorities, Quan's operation involved maintaining two sets of QuickBooks files for his company, QXQ Inc, a manufacturer and global shipper of circuit board test fixtures. With one foot in the domestic realm and another overseas, Quan directed his Asian customers' payments straight into New Zealand bank accounts, reported the Department of Justice. The 56-year-old Milpitas, Calif., resident served up his tax preparer with only the domestic financial records, conveniently omitting the foreign bank statements bloated with unreported income and interest.
Last April, Quan pleaded guilty to charges including willfully aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return, and violating foreign bank account reporting requirements. Owning up to his wrongdoing, he admitted that one of his eleven foreign bank accounts boasted over $12 million in 2018, none of which appeared on his tax returns. Thanks to his years of deceit from 2014 to 2018, Quan failed to report a staggering $1,783,339 in federal income taxes for 2017 alone, as per his plea agreement detailed by the Justice Department.
For Quan's transgressions, Judge Davila not only sent him behind bars but also ordered him to pay over $8 million in restitution to the IRS, along with a $35,000 fine, as disclosed by the prosecution led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Colin Sampson. Once Quan serves time, he'll still be under the watchful eye of the law for three years of supervised release. The IRS-CI International Tax and Financial Crimes group, a squad zeroed in on international tax crooks, brought Quan's case to light.
