OPERATOR
OF SUNNYVALE KOREAN HOSTESS BAR SENTENCED TO PRISON
Defendant
Harbored Aliens and Evaded Taxes on Income from Hostess Bar
SAN JOSE- United
States Attorney Scott N. Schools announced that Sue Yun Song, age 48,
was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in prison, and ordered to pay a $422,000
fine for her involvement in a conspiracy to harbor aliens and tax evasion.
These sentences are the result of an investigation by agents of the Sunnyvale
Department of Public Safety, the San Francisco Office of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation
Division.
Ms. Song pleaded
guilty on January 23, 2006 to conspiracy to harbor aliens, in violation
of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(v), conspiracy to commit extortion under
color of official right affecting interstate commerce, in violation of
18 U.S.C. § 1951(a), and tax evasion, in violation of 26 U.S.C. §
7201.
According to the
plea agreement, Ms. Song admitted to participating in this criminal conduct
while working with co-defendant Roger Li in arranging for the importation
of illegal female aliens from Korea, to work as hostesses at the Crystal
Palace club in Sunnyvale. Ms. Song provided financial assistance for these
women to enter the country, including providing the money used to purchase
their airline tickets and visas. Under the terms of the arrangement, the
employees were required to reimburse Ms. Song for the assistance they
received in entering the United States.
Ms. Song further
admitted that she reached an agreement with David Miller, a police officer
with the Department of Public Safety, in which the Crystal Palace subsidized
his meals, entertainment, and travel in exchange for his assistance in
collecting debts from Korean aliens who had left their employment at Crystal
Palace.
While operating Crystal
Palace, Ms. Song and Mr. Li attempted to evade paying taxes on the income
received through Crystal Palace. With Ms. Song's consent, Mr. Li diverted
a portion of the sales from the Crystal Palace business to their respective
personal bank accounts. As part of the tax evasion scheme, they used more
than one credit clearing account to route funds to different bank accounts.
Ms. Song and Mr. Li did not report as income all credit card transactions
processed through these credit clearing accounts.
Jeff Nedrow is the
Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance
of Susan Kreider. The prosecution is the result of a two-year investigation
by the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, the San Francisco Office
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal
Investigation Division.
Further Information:
Case #: CR-02-20107
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's
website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court
filings and further procedural and docket information are available at
https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Judges' calendars
with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court's
website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries
to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Natalya LaBauve at
(415) 436-7055 or by email at Natalya.LaBauve@usdoj.gov.
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