Chon gets away with it

From the NY Post:

One of the honchos of Spa Castle pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted tax fraud charges, while the notorious Queens bathhouse agreed to pay $2.5 million for cheating the system by under-reporting income.

Daniel Chon was sentenced to a three-year conditional discharge — and no jail time — after copping to felony attempted criminal tax fraud charges.

The College Point spa mecca, meanwhile, was convicted of criminal tax fraud charges and agreed to pay the millions in restitution and damages as part of a simultaneous civil action.

The state Attorney General’s Office brought a slew of indictment charges against Spa Castle, Chon and several members of his family last year, claiming they failed to pay $1.5 million in taxes by under-reporting revenue.

Weinstein noted, however, that Chon pleaded guilty to just one count related to attempting to not remit sales tax “in excess of $10,000.”

The cases against Chon’s siblings — Victor Chon, Stephanie Chon and Spa Castle owner Steve Chon — were all dismissed with prejudice, according to Weinstein.

“We have zero tolerance for tax cheats who leave New Yorkers to foot the bill,” Attorney General Barbara Underwood said in announcing the pleas. “The defendants orchestrated a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud taxpayers.”

Wow, this is zero tolerance?

Spa Castle in trouble again

From the Times Ledger:

A controversial spa in College Point is in trouble once again.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) received a letter from the New York State Department of Labor informing him that Spa Castle, located at 31-10 11th Ave., had been fined $1,000 for violating the Child Labor Statute.

Labor Department Commissioner Roberta Reardon wrote to Avella Jan. 30 about an investigation that was completed in December 2017.

According to Reardon, investigators visited Spa Castle on various occasions and times looking for violations of state laws. “After meticulous review of Spa Castle’s wage and hour records, we substantiated a violation of Article 4, the Child Labor Statute,” she told the senator in the letter.

The statute bans minors from working late hours on school nights.

Reardon said the spa was served a notice of violation on Nov. 4 with a penalty of $1,000, which they paid in full. The investigators were not able to substantiate any allegations regarding overtime.

Chon family charged with tax evasion

From NBC:

The family owners of a popular spa destination in Queens have been indicted on felony charges for failure to pay $1.5 million in taxes over the course of three years, authorities announced Wednesday.

The owners of Spa Castle Inc., a 100,000-square foot spa facility in College Point, Queens, didn't pay the sales, withholding, corporate and MTA surcharge taxes they owed from 2010 through 2013, state officials say.

"The scale of theft alleged in this case is staggering," said Acting Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Nonie Manion, who announced the indictment along with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
The investigation began when authorities executed a search warrant at Spa Castle Inc. in August 2015, and found records showing the spa owners underreported earnings and paid workers and vendors in cash.

Steven Chon, 57; his brothers Daniel Chon, 54, and Victor Chon, 50; and daughter Stephanie Chon, 29, were arraigned Wednesday in Queens Supreme Court. Bail has been set at $100,000 bond.

Spa Castle reopens

From NBC:

Spa Castle, a popular indoor pool and spa facility in Queens, has reopened after being shut down by the Health Department earlier this year.

Spa pools and outdoor pools at the College Point location were closed in March after health investigators discovered a water return feature in one of the pools that drew a girl underwater with excessive suction on Feb. 19, authorities said.

They also found that emergency response by the staff was not consistent to what the staff told investigators from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The Health Department said Thursday that Spa Castle "has undergone a rigorous process to correct violations and met our requirement to implement a new safety plan."

It's not safe to go into the water

From the NY Post:

The Spa Castle in Queens is billed as a sprawling, 22-pool Disneyland of soaks and steams.

But some patrons are anything but G-rated.

On Sunday mornings, an army of exotic dancers getting off their Saturday-night shifts descends on the complex — and it’s not to do laps in the pool.

“We open at 6 a.m., and lots of strippers come here after work to unwind,” an employee told The Post. “There’s lots of skinny dipping and the girls are making out with each other and partying. It looks like the set of a porn movie.”

During two recent visits, The Post found patrons in their birthday suits, groping each other, making out and having what appeared to be underwater sex.

Last Sunday, the clientele ranged in age from toddlers to octogenarians. But that did not stop a group of five heavily tattooed twenty-somethings from engaging in splashy sexcapades in the 2-foot-deep, heated wading pool on the second floor.

House music pulsing, one of the women stripped down naked and cheerfully played with her breasts while a woman in a yellow-fringe string bikini and a man looked on. A few minutes later the nude woman stood in front of the seated man while her hand jerked in and out of the water. A couple made out a few feet away.

A male member of the group wondered out loud if they should make a liquor-store run.

It was not yet 9 a.m.

For two decades, [Steve] Chon’s forte was building and renovating Korean-run laundries and nail salons. But in 2005, the developer with champagne tastes purchased a ramshackle warehouse on 11th Avenue in College Point for $3.6 million. He envisioned it as a family friendly hotel-spa. The spa’s Facebook page has even described its mission to create a “light-hearted, family-oriented” ambience.

The community board promptly shot Chon down, “deriding the proposal as a thinly disguised ‘hot sheet’ establishment,” the Queens Gazette reported.

But Chon gained the support of then-Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who helped shepherd the project through a series of city approvals.

Spa Castle closes

From NY1:

The city Health Department ordered Spa Castle in College Point to close all of its pools because it was not following safety standards.

The spa's owners then decided to shut the entire facility down.

It comes after a 6-year-old girl was found unconscious in one of the spa's pools on February 19.