SANTA ANA, Calif. (KNX) — A customs broker was arrested Thursday on a federal grand jury indictment charging him with failing to pay $1.5 million in taxes and engaging in a $3.4 million wire fraud scheme that overcharged a popular Japanese retail client on customs duties.
Frank Seung Noah, 59, of Corona, surrendered to law enforcement Thursday. He has been charged with one count of tax evasion and three counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. District Attorney's Office.
According to the indictment, Noah owned and operated Comis International Inc., a logistics and supply-chain company in Cerritos that offered customs-import brokerage services on behalf of businesses.
From 2007 to 2019, Comis was a customs import broker for Daiso, a Japan-based variety and value store with multiple locations in the U.S., including Southern California.
From March 2016 until Feb. 2019, Noah — acting through Comis — paid customs-import duty fees to U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Daiso’s behalf, according to prosecutors. Noah then allegedly submitted invoices to Daiso that fraudulently inflated the customs import duty fees that Noah had paid to CBP.
As a result of Noah’s scheme, Daiso paid the inflated invoices, with Noah pocketing at least $3,379,774, the indictment alleges.
Noah also is accused of willfully attempting to evade the payment of $1,562,684 in federal taxes, which the U.S. Internal Revenue Service assessed against him for between 2008-2010. He was able to do so by making small payments to the IRS, all while making much larger payments on mortgages for properties he controlled — even though they were bought in his girlfriend’s name — including his Corona residence purchased in 2016 and a vacation property in Rancho Mirage that was purchased the following year, the indictment alleged.
Noah allegedly used funds transferred to his girlfriend’s bank account to pay the mortgage on the Corona property and to a country club, prosecutors added. In Sep. 2017, after making $147,148 from the sale of a property he owned in Carson, he wrote a check to his girlfriend for $120,000 and is accused of making false statements to the IRS during that time for underreporting his income.
Including penalties and interest, as of Feb. 2022, Noah owes $2,012,618 to the IRS, according to the indictment.
If convicted of all charges, Noah would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for the tax evasion count and 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count, prosecutors said.
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