Alaska businesswoman faces prison time for tax evasion with storied Nome hotel

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An Anchorage woman pleaded guilty last Wednesday to evading taxes on income from her Nome business, which was destroyed in a fatal fire in 2017.

Court documents show that Tina Yi kept two sets of financial records for the Polaris hotel, bar and liquor store from 2014 until it burned down . One set of records accurately captured the business’ earnings, while the other understated its yearly income. Yi gave the false records to the accountants she hired to prepare her business’s taxes, which resulted in false federal tax returns from 2014 to 2018.

A news release from the U.S. Department of Justice said the move allowed her to dodge more than $550,000 in federal taxes.

Yi is scheduled to be sentenced by a federal district court judge on Oct. 11, and the maximum penalty is five years in prison. There is also a potential for supervised release, monetary penalties and restitution, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

She was the sole owner and operator of SJ Investment LLC, which did business as Polaris HBL.

Yi was indicted in 2022, according to reporting from the Nome Nugget, which also reported that she owed more than $23,000 in Nome city property tax at the time.

The criminal investigation group for the IRS conducted the investigation.

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