A 59-year-old man was sentenced today to 66 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $1.8 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service for filing false federal tax returns and other related tax offenses.

Andy S.S. Yip, a Hawai'i resident, pleaded guilty to filing false returns for the years 1995 through 1998. Yip was convicted by a jury of filing a false tax return for 1999, failing to disclose his interest in financial accounts in Hong Kong in 1998 and 1999, and a related conspiracy charge.

Yip was sentenced by District Judge David A. Ezra, who also ordered him to pay $22,522 in prosecution costs.

Edward H. Kubo Jr., U.S. attorney for the Hawai'i, said Yip ran an "off the books" business which grossed about $4 million in receipts in the form of Japanese yen from 1995-1998 which he converted to U.S. currency. Kubo added Yip's sentence was based on information produced for the court that showed the tax loss to the U.S. and state of Hawai'i was $1,052,995 — $733,302 in federal taxes and $319,693 in state taxes.