BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) — A Bellevue restaurant owner has pleaded guilty to using software that deleted transactions and allowed her to steal nearly $400,000 in sales taxes.
The Seattle Times reported on Aug. 31 that Yu-Ling Wong, the owner of Taiwanese restaurant Facing East, has agreed to pay $300,000 in restitution to the Department of Revenue.
An Everett man who sold her the software pleaded guilty in December.
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson says the prosecution was the first in the United States for the use of sales suppression software.
The missing taxes became apparent when auditors looking at the restaurant’s tax returns found a smaller than normal amount of cash sales and that cash tips on some days exceeded the restaurant’s total cash sales. ■