Garden Grove body shop owner pleads guilty to underpaying nearly $1M in taxes

SANTA ANA, California – The owner of three Orange County auto-repair businesses pleaded guilty today to a federal criminal charge for deliberately failing to report nearly $3 million in income to the IRS over a seven-year period, causing a tax loss to the United States of almost $1 million.

Chung Ku Sin, 68, of Garden Grove, pleaded guilty to a single-count information charging him with filing a false tax return.

According to his plea agreement, Sin owns and operates three auto-repair companies in Orange County: Golden Auto Body, Tops Auto Body, and Victory Auto Body. During the tax years 2015 through 2021, Sin received payments for services from these companies, including in the form of checks. During this period, Sin used a check-cashing business in Garden Grove to cash checks for services performed by these companies.

Sin used the check-cashing business to cash approximately $2,927,265 in checks made payable to his auto-repair businesses. Sin willfully and intentionally withheld from his tax preparer the business receipts and income these companies received in the form of checks. Instead, he only provided to his tax preparer and reported on his tax returns the business receipts and income that he had deposited into his business bank accounts.

For example, in October 2017, Sin willfully made and subscribed to a materially false federal individual income tax return for the calendar year 2016, which was verified by a written declaration that it was made under the penalties of perjury and was filed with the IRS. Sin knew that this tax return falsely reported that his total income for 2016 was $180,124 when, in fact, he knew the number he provided to the government omitted approximately $580,351 in income.

Sin further admitted in his plea agreement to willfully making and subscribing to materially false federal individual income tax returns for the years 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.

The total tax loss Sin deliberately caused to the United States Treasury for these years was $977,807. He has agreed to pay to the IRS this sum plus penalties and interest.

United States District Judge John W. Holcomb scheduled a May 10, 2024 sentencing hearing, at which time Sin will face a statutory maximum sentence of three years in federal prison.

IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Brett A. Sagel of the Corporate and Securities Fraud Strike Force is prosecuting this case.