Date: August 19, 2021 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov LOS ANGELES — The owner of an Orange County-based painting and decorating business pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal criminal charge that he filed false tax returns, resulting in a loss of nearly $400,000 to the United States Treasury. Young Hoon Om, of Seal Beach, pleaded guilty to one count of subscribing to a false tax return. According to his plea agreement, from at least 2016 to 2019, Om, the owner of Major Painting Co., a Garden Grove-based painting-service company, used a check cashing facility in San Pedro to cash more than $1.6 million in checks he received from his clients. Over the same period, Om failed to disclose on his individual income tax returns all the income he earned, reporting only $972,150 in gross receipts earned through his business. For example, in 2020, Om reported a total income of $281,135 on his individual federal income tax return for 2019 when he knew he had earned approximately $617,540 in additional income for a total income of approximately $898,675. Om admitted to underreporting his income by tens of thousands of dollars for each of the tax years 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. In each instance, Om acted willfully to falsely understate his annual income and minimize his tax liability. "Small business owners such as Mr. Om make up an important, and often difficult to address, portion of the tax gap. The tax gap, which estimates indicate is approximately $441 billion annually, is the difference between the estimated amount of taxes owed to the IRS and the amount that the IRS actually receives each year," said IRS-Criminal Investigation Los Angeles Field Office Special Agent in Charge Ryan Korner. "Mr. Om's guilty plea sends a clear message that all taxpayers must comply with the law, and that those who intentionally fail to meet their taxpaying responsibilities will be held accountable." United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee has scheduled a December 1 sentencing hearing, at which time Om will face a statutory maximum sentence of three years in federal prison. IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this case. Assistant United States Attorney Gina Kong of the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California is prosecuting this case.
