The operator of a staffing firm in the Southern California city of Covina pleaded guilty Dec. 15 to failing to pay more than $200,000 in payroll taxes, the US Department of Justice reported.

Robinson Rin Yang of Diamond Bar, California, faces up to five years in prison, according to the department. Yang, who also goes by the names Robert Mora and David Lee, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 27, 2023.

Yang operated B&S Staffing from mid-2017 until the end of 2019, according to the department. Yang didn’t have an ownership interest, received no official regular salary and had no official title at B&S, according to court documents. He was assisted by a person known as “Individual 1” who served as the nominal owner and CEO. Individual 1 had no experience in the staffing industry and formed B&S under Yang’s direction, the documents said. Yang was the actual person who recruited customers, hired and managed staff, set prices and commission rates and exercised constructive control over the corporate bank account despite not being a signatory.

While Yang did not pay himself a salary, he did have B&S issue checks from its corporate bank account to a business named Advanced Business Konsulting, according to the Justice Department. Yang controlled the Advanced Business Konsulting accounts where the checks were deposited.

Yang also used B&S funds for the down payment and monthly mortgage payments on a purchase of a home but kept the property titled in the name of another person to conceal his ownership of the property, the Justice Department reported. In addition, Yang directed payments from the corporate bank accounts of B&S to pay for personal expenses, including a portion of his daughter’s college tuition, and funding for other business interests, including a failed construction business and a failed restaurant.

The department also reported that although Yang earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from his operation of B&S during each of the calendar years 2017 through 2019, he failed to timely file federal income tax returns for those years.