California Customs Broker Cops to Defrauding Clients Out of Over $5 Million
A California customs broker pleaded guilty Feb. 7 to defrauding importers out of more than $5 million and committing over $1 million in tax evasion, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced. The broker, Frank Seung Noah, copped to two counts of wire fraud, for which he faces up to 20 years in prison each, and one count of tax evasion, for which he faces five years in prison.
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Noah owned and operated Comis International, a California-based logistics and supply-chain firm that offered import brokerage services, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. From 2007 to 2019, Comis worked on behalf of Daiso, a Japanese variety and value store with locations in the U.S.
Noah gave Daiso "false customs duty forms and invoices in support of fraudulent requests for reimbursement for duty fees," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The forms "differed materially" from the ones submitted to CBP by inflating the total amounts, leading to Daiso overpaying Noah by nearly $3.4 million.
The broker's fraud continued after his indictment in 2022, when he used "a different fraud scheme" to get over $2 million from other clients, the office said. Noah invoiced and received funds from two companies before "pocketing the funds instead of paying the customs duties to CBP." After the clients asked Noah about the duty payments, he sent them "altered bank statements falsely reflecting that he had paid the customs duties."