A federal grand jury has charged two brothers in Southern California with tax evasion on greater than $1.1 million in earnings they allegedly obtained partly from a years-long scheme promoting tee occasions on native golf programs.
Se Youn “Steve” Kim, 41, and his equivalent twin brother, Hee Youn “Ted” Kim, 41, had been arrested Thursday morning by federal authorities and pleaded not responsible.
From 2021 to 2023, the Kim brothers’ tee time brokering enterprise scooped up 1000’s of reservation slots at golf programs throughout the U.S., together with at the least 17 public golf programs in Southern California, based on the indictment filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court docket.
The brothers used on-line platforms together with KakaoTalk, a Korean immediate messaging app, to succeed in their prospects. Federal prosecutors say that by rapidly nabbing well-liked early morning tee occasions nearly instantly after they had been obtainable to the general public, the brothers “created a monopoly” of Southern California golf programs.
The prevalence of tee-time brokering was reported by The Instances final 12 months, by which scores of native golfers shared frustrations over their incapability to safe a tee time on public programs in L.A.
“Lastly, it’s justice,” mentioned Joseph Lee, a vocal critic of tee time brokers who helped acquire proof and met with federal prosecutors throughout their investigation of the Kim brothers. “For a very long time, L.A. golfers have been annoyed by these unlawful tee time brokers and their resale market. Authorities have lastly acknowledged the seriousness of the problem.”
Anthony Solis, the lawyer representing Ted Kim, mentioned he didn’t instantly have a response on behalf of his consumer. The lawyer representing Steve Kim didn’t reply to a message searching for remark.
Federal prosecutors mentioned the brothers had prospects pay reservation charges to their private accounts through Venmo, Zelle, and different purposes. The tee time brokering enterprise netted the brothers almost $700,000 between 2021 and 2023, based on the indictment. The brothers, who additionally labored as MRI technicians, are accused of willfully failing to report a mixed $1.1 million in earnings to the Inside Income Service for 2022 and 2023.
The Kim brothers are additionally accused of failing to pay taxes that the IRS had assessed. Moderately than paying off mounting tax money owed, the indictment alleges that the brothers made lavish purchases at Chanel, Cartier, Prada and Louis Vuitton.
In a short interview with The Instances final 12 months, Ted Kim mentioned that he used as much as 5 units and relied on unspecified associates to safe tee occasions. He mentioned he’s on the identical taking part in area as each different golfer in L.A. and doesn’t use bots to recreation the system.
“It’s not like I’m profiting from know-how. I’m reserving myself,” Kim informed The Instances in an interview. “I’m not doing something unlawful.”
Kim informed the newspaper that he profited a pair thousand {dollars} a month, and framed his enterprise as a means of serving to aged Korean golfers with out tech savvy to navigate the net golf reservation system.
“I’m simply serving to Korean seniors, as a result of they’ve a proper to play golf, as a result of all of the Koreans play golf, proper? With out my assist, they really wrestle,” he mentioned.
This can be a breaking information story and shall be up to date.
