Port Orchard tobacco-product wholesaler charged with fraud

SEATTLE (AP) — A Port Orchard man is in federal custody on charges that his wholesale non-cigarette tobacco trading company evaded excise taxes when he bought and sold products illegally.

A federal complaint says Hyun Seung Kim has owned CP Trading Company since 2009. An affidavit by an Internal Revenue Service agent says Kim would pay cash when he bought products from the Riverside Smoke Shop on the Puyallup Indian Reservation. The agent says Kim then would then deliver tobacco products to gas stations and smoke shops in the Puget Sound area. The shops would usually pay cash for the goods.

The agent says this process allowed Kim to avoid paying about $1.2 million excise taxes levied on the sale and distribution of tobacco products.

Kim was charged with wire fraud and money laundering.