Schuette: Orchard Lake Restaurant Sushi Samurai

Sentenced in Tax Embezzlement Scheme, Owners

Will Pay Almost $1 million in Restitution

Contact: Andrea Bitely, Megan Hawthorne; 517-373-8060

November 30, 2017

LANSING Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced that Sushi
Samurai Inc. owned by Christina and Dong Hyun Chang, of Orchard Lake, has
been ordered to pay $980,479.59 in restitution and will serve five years probation
for embezzling sales tax paid by customers and underreporting their income at
their restaurant Sushi Samurai.
I am pleased to see these individuals and their company taking responsibility for
their actions, said Schuette. This case should serve as an example to others
that breaking the law for personal gain has consequences. I want to thank the
Department of Treasury for their efforts on this case.
The restaurant entered a guilty plea in October.
Owners Dong and Christina Chang pleaded guilty earlier this month to two
counts each, one count of filing false monthly sales tax returns and one count of
filing false joint income tax returns. They will be sentenced on Dec 15, 2017.
Mr. and Mrs. Chang will be making restitution on behalf of their restaurant.
Restitution payments may be made in monthly increments of $7,500.

CASE BACKGROUND
The Changs were charged after a joint investigation by the Department of
Attorney General and the Department of Treasury into whether the restaurant
was using an illegal Point of Sale (POS) sales suppression software.
During the investigation, it was determined that the sales in Sushi Samurais
records were significantly higher than those reported to the state. The zapper
software essentially deletes sales from the Point of Sale records. It was
determined that thousands of sales receipts had been deleted.
After further investigation, it was determined that in total the Changs via their
business embezzled over $170,000 in sales tax receipts alone. In addition, over
$2.5 million in sales were allegedly never reported or accounted for in income tax
filings between 2012-2016. The Changs used this money for business and
personal expenses.

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