Outfit Accused Of Ripping Off Consumers Out Of $120M+ In Income Tax Relief Racket Gets Off By Paying Only $15M To Settle FTC Suit; Feds To Suspend $100M+ In Money Judgments Due To Scammers' Inability To Pay

The Federal Trade Commission recently announced:

• Under an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission, the defendants in a scheme that allegedly bilked consumers out of more than $100 million by falsely claiming they could reduce their tax debts must surrender more than $15 million in cash and assets to settle charges that they violated federal law.
  
  Under the settlement order, American Tax Relief LLC and its leader, Alexander Seung Hahn, are banned from telemarketing, and they and Hahn’s wife, Joo Hyun Park, are permanently prohibited from selling debt relief services. As part of the FTC’s ongoing efforts to protect consumers in financial distress, this is the agency’s first action against a tax relief company.
  
  The FTC filed charges against American Tax Relief, Hahn, and Park in September 2010. A court subsequently halted the allegedly illegal practices, froze the defendants’ assets, and appointed a receiver to manage the company pending resolution of the case.

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• The settlement order imposes a $103.3 million judgment against ATR, Hahn, and Joo Hyun Park. It also imposes judgments of $18 million and $595,000, respectively, against relief defendants Young Soon Park and Il Kon Park, Joo Park’s parents, who were not charged with participating in the scheme but were found by the court to have received significant sums.
  
  The judgments will be suspended once the defendants and relief defendants have surrendered assets that total more than $15 million, including cash, a home in Beverly Hills and a condo in Los Angeles, jewelry and gold items, and a 2005 Ferrari.
  
  The full judgments will become due immediately if the defendants or relief defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.

For the FTC press release, see FTC Settlement: Tax Relief Scammers Agree to Pay More Than $15 Million (American Tax Relief Scheme Bilked Consumers With False Promises They Qualified for IRS Programs to Reduce Tax Debts).