Date: May 14, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
SAN JOSE — Tae Hyun Lee pleaded guilty in federal court today to aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of a false tax return for the year 2019.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Lee, 62, of San Jose, a self-employed chiropractor and the sole owner and operator of a business called Gentle Chiropractic Care, hid income generated by his chiropractic practice from the individual who prepared his income tax returns and from the IRS.
In 2018, 2019, and 2020, Lee cashed more than $1.4 million in checks payable to his chiropractic practice at a check cashing business rather than depositing them into the practice’s bank account, and also deposited checks and electronic payments into his personal bank accounts. Lee then told the individual who prepared his income tax returns for those three years that all of the practice’s income had been deposited into the practice’s bank account, which was not true. Lee’s tax return preparer prepared income tax returns reporting only the income deposited into the practice’s bank account. This resulted in the taxable income and tax due reported on Lee’s income tax returns for 2018, 2019, and 2020 to be materially underreported. Specifically, Lee caused the majority of Gentle Chiropractic Care’s income during these years to be unreported on his income tax returns.
In total, Lee caused a tax loss to the IRS of at least $439,028.
Acting United States Attorney Patrick D. Robbins and IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Special Agent in Charge of the Oakland Field Office Linda Nguyen made the announcement.
Under the plea agreement, Lee pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2), which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 24, 2025, before U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts. Any sentence will be imposed by the Court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael G. Pitman is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Sahib Kaur. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by IRS-CI.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.