LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Two Kentucky men were caught filing false tax returns.
Investigators said Yan Chen was convicted of selling fake items, including Louis Vuitton purses, Beats headphones and North Face jackets.
Bryant Jackson, special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation division, said Chen was making a lot of sales.
"We go back and follow the money," Jackson said. "That's what we're good at."Â
Investigators said Chen was importing the items from China before selling them at a purse party in Nelson County and at flea markets in Bowling Green and Cave City.Â
"For a person who was in the market for buying something, they had the seals for the name brands embedded, and they were peddled as if they were the real product," Jackson said.
A picture shows the fake Chanel and Prada emblems that investigators said Chen would put on the purses. Court documents said the items had "good counterfeit marks," nearly "identical" and "indistinguishable" to genuine high-end brands.
Fake Goods Seized by IRS
"We establish patterns we trace it back three, four, five years that this wasn't a mistake," Jackson said.
Agents said Chen also filed false tax returns over several years starting in 2013, under-reporting just how much money he was making, telling the IRS it was $33,000. The government said he actually made more than $260,000 that year. Investigators said Chen wasn't arrested, so he doesn't have a mug shot, but he turned himself in to authorities.
"At the time when we worked this investigation with counterparts at HSI, we were able to seize 11,000 items with a street value of over $2 million," Jackson said.
Bryant Jackson
Chen just took this plea deal in November and is scheduled to be sentenced in April.
Court records show Hatem Kaisi of Louisville was also busted for filing a false federal income tax return and health care fraud saying for years he was eligible for Medicaid when he wasn't. He was indicted in December and just recently arrested. His attorney, Scott C. Cox, said Kaisi was just ordered to be released from jail at his detention hearing. Documents say Kaisi's income was actually more than $225,000 and climbing.
Jackson said there's a reason why the case took awhile.
"We were able to find out when he was going back to the states and apprehend him," he said.
Cox says Kaisi has to surrender his passports. A judge released Kaisi from jail with travel restrictions. He can only stay in Jefferson County and can leave his house for work.
"Mr. Kaisi is a dual citizen of the United States and Jordan, and he and his family were living in Jordan," Cox said. "They all moved back to Louisville, in part, because he wanted to face these charges and defend himself against these charges. I can't say much else about the case, because the government hasn't provided us with discovery yet, but they expect to do that within the next few days."
Chen's plea agreement has him owing nearly $300,000 in back taxes. He faces up to 29 years in prison and a $2.8 million fine.
"It is people out there like Chen that is looking for victims to victimize just to increase their wallets," Jackson said.
His attorney Mark Chandler said he's not commenting on this case.
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