Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Spa Castle Owners Busted For Failing to Pay $1.5M in Taxes, Officials Say

By Ben Fractenberg | March 22, 2017 6:03pm
 Spa castle owners (from left to right) Victor Chon, Steve Chon, Daniel Chon and Stephanie Chon were charged with failing to pay more than $1.5 million in state taxes.
Spa castle owners (from left to right) Victor Chon, Steve Chon, Daniel Chon and Stephanie Chon were charged with failing to pay more than $1.5 million in state taxes.
View Full Caption
New York State Attorney General

QUEENS — The owners of Spa Castle are facing up to 15 years in prison after being arrested Wednesday and charged with failing to pay more than $1.5 million in taxes, prosecutors said.

Steve Chon, 57, along with his brothers, Daniel Chon, 54, Victor Chon, 50, and Victor's daughter, Stephanie Chon, 29, were busted after investigators raided the 100,000-square-foot College Point spa in 2015 and eventually found the family failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in state taxes from 2010 to 2013, the attorney general’s office said.

“Companies that fail to pay their fair share of taxes leave ordinary New Yorkers to foot the bill,” state Attorney General Schneiderman said in a statement. “We will not tolerate irresponsible business owners who cheat the system and undermine our tax laws.”

The Chons underreported earnings and paid employees under the table, robbing the state of more than $621,000 in sales taxes, $207,000 in withholding taxes, $610,000 in corporate taxes and $131,000 in Metropolitan Transportation Authority Surcharge taxes, Schneiderman said.

All four defendants were charged with felony grand larceny, felony criminal tax fraud and misdemeanor criminal tax fraud. 

They were all arraigned in Queens Supreme Court Wednesday and released on $100,000 bail. 

The pools at Spa Castle were briefly closed last March after an 8-year-old girl nearly drowned.

A lawyer for the defendants did not return an immediate request for comment.