Division of Justice
Workplace of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, August 1, 2022
Third Defendant Pleads Responsible to Multimillion Greenback Tax Fraud Scheme Involving Skilled Athletes and a PPP Mortgage Fraud Scheme
A California man pleaded responsible at present to conspiring with others in schemes to defraud the IRS and the Paycheck Safety Program (PPP), a federal loans initiative designed to assist companies pay their staff and meet bills in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In accordance with court docket paperwork and statements made in court docket, Thanh Ngoc Rudin, 58, was a principal of Mana Tax Companies, a tax preparation enterprise within the Los Angeles space. Rudin engaged in a conspiracy to commit two units of fraud schemes utilizing Mana Tax.
First, from June of 2019 via July 2021, Thanh Rudin conspired along with his brother, Quin Ngoc Rudin, in addition to Seir Havana and others, to arrange and file with the IRS a sequence of false and fraudulent revenue tax returns on behalf of not less than 9 skilled athletes. The false tax returns reported fabricated enterprise and private losses to generate refunds the athletes weren’t entitled to obtain. The co-conspirators advised the skilled athletes that Mana Tax additionally may amend prior 12 months tax returns to appropriate purported errors made by the athletes’ earlier accountants to get extra refunds they weren’t entitled to obtain. Mana Tax then charged the athletes a charge of 30% of the ensuing refund.
Thanh Rudin and his co-conspirators additionally used Mana Tax to use for PPP loans on behalf of various small companies, shell entities managed by the co-conspirators themselves with few or no staff, and enterprise entities managed by others. To acquire the PPP loans to which the candidates weren’t entitled, the co-conspirators grossly inflated the variety of staff and month-to-month payroll prices claimed on the PPP mortgage functions and submitted fabricated tax returns in assist of the functions. In trade for processing the functions, Mana Tax charged a charge of 30% of the worth of the mortgage obtained.
In the course of the investigation, the federal government seized greater than $11.eight million from financial institution accounts containing PPP mortgage fraud proceeds managed by the conspirators. As well as, Havana surrendered cashier’s checks price roughly $5.6 million, representing a portion of the charges charged to skilled athletes for the preparation of their false tax returns, and a portion of the charges charged for acquiring fraudulent PPP loans. The 2 schemes resulted in complete losses of greater than $25 million.
Thanh Rudin is scheduled to be sentenced on November 9. He faces a most penalty of 5 years in jail for the conspiracy cost and 20 years in jail for wire fraud. He additionally faces a interval of supervised launch, restitution, and financial penalties. A federal district court docket choose will decide any sentence after bearing in mind the U.S. Sentencing Pointers and different statutory elements.
On Might 13, Quin Rudin pleaded responsible to conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud. His sentencing listening to is scheduled for September 14. On July 20, Havana pleaded responsible to conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and cash laundering. His sentencing listening to is scheduled for Nov. 9.
