May 23, 2018

A resident of Queens, New York, pleaded guilty to failing to collect and pay over employment tax, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to court documents, Kae Wook Lee was the sole owner and chief executive officer of Mona Lisa 7 Corporation, through which he operated a karaoke bar in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens. Between 2011 and 2013, Lee diverted part of his karaoke business’s receipts to bank accounts in the names of shell corporations he created. Lee then withdrew funds from those bank accounts to pay employees’ wages in cash without collecting or paying over employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Lee concealed the cash payroll from his accountant and signed and filed false tax returns that underreported employee wages. The tax loss to the IRS caused by the defendant’s conduct was $612,500. DOJ