The Peoria owner of a chain of Arizona clothing stores will spend two years in federal prison after pleading guilty earlier this year to tax evasion.
According to federal court documents, from January 2012 through June 2017, Lee put in place a scheme to evade taxes by underreporting income for BBB Fashion Inc. and ELS Inc., the two businesses that operated BBB Fashion, by asking employees to give him all cash paid by store customers. In turn, he kept two sets of ledgers, one including the cash payments, and one excluding them. Lee then would turn in the books without the cash payments to his accountant to use while preparing his tax returns.
Separately, Young Bok Lee, one of Hwan Lee’s employees at BBB Fashion, pleaded guilty on May 19 on one charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. He is scheduled for a sentencing hearing Dec. 1 in front of U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton.