RivCo Customs Fraudster Stole $5 Million In Import Funds, Taxes, Sentenced To Federal Prison

CORONA, CA — A Corona customs broker who swiped more than $5 million in funds intended to pay import duties, as well as dodged roughly $1 million in tax obligations, was bound for federal prison Friday to serve a sentence of four years, three months behind bars.

Frank Seung Noah, 64, pleaded guilty in February to one count of tax evasion and two counts of wire fraud.

During a hearing Thursday at U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, federal Judge Josephine Staton imposed the sentence determined just under the terms of Noah's plea bargain. In addition to the prison term, she ordered the defendant to pay $7.57 million in restitution.

Noah owned Comis International Inc., a logistics and supply chain company headquartered in Cerritos. Comis was a customs import broker for the national Daiso chain -- a Japan-based variety and value store with outlets in Southern California -- from 2007 through 2019.

Noah admitted inflating customs import duty fees he paid while billing Daiso, resulting in the company overpaying Noah nearly $3.4 million, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

After he was indicted for defrauding Daiso in 2022, the defendant continued to defraud other clients out of more than $2 million, using a different scheme, prosecutors said.

Noah also acknowledged causing a loss to the Internal Revenue Service of nearly $2.4 million by cheating on his taxes from 2008 to 2010, making partial payments for what he owed while using his income to make large payments on mortgages he put in the name of his girlfriend for properties in Corona and Rancho Mirage.

After agreeing with the IRS that he owed more than $1 million in taxes in 2014, Noah avoided the agency's attempts to collect the amount owed, instead spending thousands of dollars on country club memberships, travel and golf purchases, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.