The owner of a Greenwich nail salon has pleaded guilty to structuring payments and violating immigration laws.
Jae Hee Yang, 57 of Englewood, N.J., pleaded guilty this week in Federal Court in Hartford to structuring currency transactions and employing an unauthorized alien.
In 2009. Yang, owner of Tip top Nails, withdrew $100,000 in 15 cash withdrawals, to avoid triggering a Currency Transaction Report. Federal law requires all financial institutions to report withdrawals exceeding $10,000 in cash.
The CRT could also generate questions about the use of the funds, so people try to avoid triggering it by structuring the payments.
Yang also ran afoul of federal law because she employed undocumented workers and paid them in cash under the table.
She will be sentenced on Nov. 20. She faces up to five-and-a-half years in prison, a $250,000 fine and has agreed to give up the $100,000 she structured. The money was earned through the business, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut said.
She employs one illegal and it’s a big deal. However companies that employ many slip under the radar.
A CRT is a Currency Transaction Report. It’s the report the bank has to file for transactions involving more than $10,000 and it’s this report the Feds claim the owner was trying to avoid.
What is a CRT?