A Southern California customs broker, Frank Seung Noah of Corona, admitted to orchestrating schemes defrauding over $5 million from his clients by supplying them with falsified customs duty forms and evading over $1 million in federal taxes, as reported by KTLA. Noah, 64, who operated Comis International Inc., a Cerritos-based company that managed the logistics and customs import brokerage for various businesses including Daiso, a Japan-based retail chain, pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion and two counts of wire fraud.
Over a span from 2007 to 2019, Noah provided Daiso with false customs forms and invoices, which differed significantly from the authentic documents submitted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), leading Daiso to overpay almost $3.4 million; even after his indictment in 2022, he continued his fraudulent activities, manipulating other clients out of more than $2 million and when confronted, provided them with altered bank statements to mask the deceit, as detailed by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Central District of California.
Noah's tactics to avoid tax payments after owning more than $1 million to the IRS included conducting transactions through check cashing businesses, purchasing real estate in his ex-girlfriend's name to escape IRS levies and spending on luxuries like country club memberships; this behavior resulted in a $2.4 million loss to the IRS with accruing penalties and interest, "After agreeing with the IRS that he owed more than $1 million in taxes in 2014, Noah actively avoided IRS attempts to collect the amount owed," according to court documents obtained by KTLA.
The sentencing for Noah, which could lead to a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for each count of wire fraud and up to five years for tax evasion, is scheduled for May 8, as determined by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton, IRS Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations investigated Noah's operations, with assistance from the United States Customs and Border Protection, to crystallize a pattern of willful deception and fiscal misconduct, per the announcement from Assistant United States Attorneys Nandor F.R. Kiss and Robert J. Keenan who are prosecuting the case.
