Quin Ngoc RudinRudin pleaded guilty on May 13 to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit wire fraud, as well as to one count of wire fraud.
Along with others, Rudin, who was CFO of Mana, conspired with his brother, Thanh Rudin, 59, of Rosemead, Calif., and Seir Havana, 46, of North Hollywood, California, to prepare and file false income tax returns on behalf of at least nine professional athletes. Mana Tax charged the clients 30 percent of refunds issued by the IRS and caused a tax loss of more than $19 million.
In addition, Rudin and his co-conspirators at Mana Tax, aincluding Milton Estrada, 49, of Fullerton, Calif., caused more than $43 million in losses through PPP loans. The group submitted false applications for PPP loans on behalf of small businesses, shell companies and other business entities they controlled.
Mana Tax filed some of these loans without informing business owners and collectedt 30 percent of loan proceeds issued. They submitted fabricated tax returns to support the applications and concealed the 30-percent fee by directing businesses to pay the co-conspirators via casher’s checks and note on the memo lines the amounts were for payroll.
For shell companies and other entities the controlled, Rudin and his cronies grossly inflated the number of employees and payroll costs claimed, in some cases for business that had no payroll
Three other co-conspirators, including Rudin’s brother, Thanh Rudin, Seir Havana and Milton Estrada also pleaded guilty as part of this conspiracy. Thanh Rudin and Havana are scheduled to be sentenced on November 9; Milton Estrada on December 21.
