Broker Faces Up to 65 Years in Prison for Alleged Defrauding of Client

A Corona, California, customs broker was arrested Feb. 10 on a federal grand jury indictment charging him in a scheme to defraud a Japanese variety store. Broker Frank Seung Noah was charged with tax evasion and wire fraud involving customs duties. The indictment says he evaded payment of $1.5 million in taxes and engaged in a $3.4 million wire fraud scheme that overcharged one of his clients, Daiso, the variety store. Noah owned and operated Comis International Inc., a logistics and supply-chain firm that provided customs brokerage services to companies, including Daiso.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, the scheme began at least as early as March 2016. Comis, under the direction of Noah, paid customs import fees to CBP on Daiso’s behalf until 2019. Noah then allegedly sent invoices to Daiso that fraudulently inflated the payments to CBP, causing Daiso to pay a total of "at least approximately $3,379,774" on the inflated invoices. The indictment lists three specific interstate and foreign wire transfers whereby Noah overcharged Daiso a combined $214,576.09 on top of the $511,781.49 of legitimate customs duties.

In addition to allegedly defrauding his clients, Noah also "willfully attempted to evade the payment of approximately $1,562,684 in federal taxes" between 2008 and 2010. He allegedly did so by making small payments to the IRS while making much larger payments on mortgages for property he controlled, though they were purchased in his girlfriend’s name. He also allegedly made false statements to the IRS during this time by underreporting his income. From 2014 to 2017, Noah allegedly cashed more than $7 million in checks instead of depositing the funds into his personal or business bank accounts to conceal his control over such funds. Including penalties and interest, as of February 2022, Noah owes approximately $2,012,618 to the IRS, according to the indictment.

Noah surrendered to law enforcement and was expected to be arraigned the same afternoon in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California. 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 of three wire fraud counts. Assistant United States Attorneys Daniel Ahn and Daniel Lim of the Santa Ana Branch Office are prosecuting this case.