SAN JOSE– LAWFUEL – The Law Newswire – United States Scott N. Schools announced that Sue Yun Song, age 48, was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in prison, and ordered to pay $422,000.00 in restitution for her involvement in a conspiracy to harbor aliens and tax evasion. These sentences are the result of an investigation by agents of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, the San Francisco Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division.
Ms. Song pleaded guilty on January 23, 2006 to conspiracy to harbor aliens, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(v), conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right affecting interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a), and tax evasion, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7201.
According to the plea agreement, Ms. Song admitted to participating in this criminal conduct while working with co-defendant Roger Li in arranging for the importation of illegal female aliens from Korea, to work as hostesses at the Crystal Palace club in Sunnyvale. Ms. Song provided financial assistance for these women to enter the country, including providing the money used to purchase their airline tickets and visas. Under the terms of the arrangement, the employees were required to reimburse Ms. Song for the assistance they received in entering the United States.
Ms. Song further admitted that she reached an agreement with David Miller, a police officer with the Department of Public Safety, in which the Crystal Palace subsidized his meals, entertainment, and travel in exchange for his assistance in collecting debts from Korean aliens who had left their employment at Crystal Palace.
While operating Crystal Palace, Ms. Song and Mr. Li attempted to evade paying taxes on the income received through Crystal Palace. With Ms. Song’s consent, Mr. Li diverted a portion of the sales from the Crystal Palace business to their respective personal bank accounts. As part of the tax evasion scheme, they used more than one credit clearing account to route funds to different bank accounts. Ms. Song and Mr. Li did not report as income all credit card transactions processed through these credit clearing accounts.
Jeff Nedrow is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Susan Kreider. The prosecution is the result of a two-year investigation by the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, the San Francisco Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division.
Further Information:
Case No. CR-02-20107
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Natalya LaBauve at (415) 436-7055 or by email at Natalya.LaBauve@usdoj.govmailto:Luke.Macaulay@usdoj.gov.
