April 14, 2021 - SANTA ANA, California – A South Korean national who lives in Orange County has been charged with tax evasion for failing to report on a federal income tax return interest income he earned from deposits in bank accounts he controlled in Hong Kong and Singapore.

            Jean Guy Minn, 56, of Irvine, who is residing in the United States as a legal permanent resident, was named in a criminal information filed late Monday that charges him with one count of tax evasion.

            The information specifically accuses Minn of filing a personal tax return for the year 2016 that failed to report $552,454 in interest income he earned from a foreign bank account. As a result, Minn failed to pay $162,369 in federal income tax that year.

            In conjunction with the information, prosecutors on Monday also filed a plea agreement in which Minn agreed to plead guilty to the felony tax offense. In the plea agreement, Minn admitted that he failed to report a total of $2,365,427 of interest income for the tax years 2010 through 2017.

            In his plea agreement, Minn agreed to pay $573,916 in back taxes for the eight years and an as-yet-undetermined amount of penalties. For example, because he also failed to report the existence of the accounts to U.S. authorities, the plea agreement calls for Minn to pay a 50 percent penalty on one of his foreign accounts that held up to approximately $18 million.

            Minn has been directed to make his initial court appearance in this case in United States District Court in Santa Ana on April 26.

            The statutory maximum sentence for the tax evasion offense is five years in federal prison.

            This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation.

            This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lawrence E. Kole of the Santa Ana Branch Office.
Source: DOJ