Owner of Kengo’s sentenced
to 30 months in prison

A jury convicted him of filing
false returns for federal income tax

---

By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

The 61-year-old owner of Kengo's Royal Buffet was sentenced yesterday in federal court to 30 months in prison and one year's supervised release for filing false corporate income tax returns in 1992 and individual returns from 1993 to 1994.

U.S. District Judge Alan Kay noted Kengo I. Nozaki embezzled nearly $500,000 and failed to report more than $10,000 in income.

Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Michael Seabright said Nozaki schemed and skimmed funds from the business for 3 1/2 years.

A jury found Nozaki guilty in October of filing false corporate tax returns for 1992 for Kapiolani Enterprises Inc., doing business as Kengo's Royal Buffet, and of filing false individual returns for 1993 and '94.

The judge could have sentenced Nozaki to a maximum of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of three counts. Instead, Kay said he sentenced Nozaki to the low end of the scale because he was a successful restaurateur since 1982 and had been law-abiding, and his crime was of a nonviolent nature.

The judge gave Nozaki three months to care for his wife, who is recuperating from knee surgery. Nozaki must report to the federal detention center June 10 before being transported to a mainland prison.

During the trial, several former employees of Kengo's Royal Buffet testified Nozaki had skimmed profits from the business and that the money was not reported on his personal tax returns or on the corporate tax return filed for 1992.

Nozaki hid $112,000 in 1992, $166,000 in 1993 and $68,000 during the first half of 1994 while he was general manager of Kengo's Royal Buffet on Kapiolani Boulevard.

Richard Kawana, Nozaki's lawyer, said his client had never run afoul of the law before and was a hard-working immigrant. He described his client's actions as aberrant.

He told the court that several employees who testified against Nozaki overstated Nozaki's blame in the matter.

Nozaki, through an interpreter, told the court that one employee took $200,000 in cash. "He never put a penny into the business and got away with $200,000 cash," he said. "As for me, I put everything into the business, and I still have debt."