A Korean-American sushi restaurant owner in Lynnwood, Washington, has been sentenced to prison for tax evasion.
On December 19, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington announced that Si Yong Kim, who operated Japanese restaurants Oshima and Si Joy in Snohomish County, was sentenced to 10 months in prison, a $10,000 fine, and two years of supervised release for tax evasion.
According to federal prosecutors, Kim, in addition to evading income tax, also misappropriated Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds intended for employee salaries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kim allegedly earned more than $1.7 million in total income from the restaurants between 2016 and 2020 but underreported this amount to evade taxes. To avoid IRS tracking, Kim solicited cash payments from customers and kept the proceeds, periodically depositing the cash into his personal bank account or storing it at his home. He also paid his employees in cash and failed to remit various employment taxes.
During a search warrant executed at Kim’s home in June 2022, law enforcement officers discovered handwritten books in which he documented the actual gross income and legitimate expenses for his restaurants. These books also included a separate figure, a “CPA number,” that he provided to his accountant for tax purposes.
The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation’s analysis revealed that from 2016 to 2020, Kim consistently failed to report his actual income for each restaurant. In 2017 alone, he underreported more than $586,395 in income.
In federal court on December 19, Kim’s defense attorney requested leniency, highlighting that his client had already sold two restaurants. Judge Robart, however, expressed concern, stating, “Here is a man who is withholding taxes from the treasury but is perfectly willing to take taxes from the treasury to keep his businesses afloat…. It is highly troublesome that this went on for an extensive period of time.”
BY HYOUNGJAE KIM, JUNHAN PARK [kim.ian@koreadaily.com]
