Owners Of Massachusetts Temp Agency Indicted For Failing to Pay Over Employment Taxes (etc.)

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https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/owners-massachusetts-temp-agency-indicted-failing-pay-over-employment-taxes-and-obstructing

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Owners Of Massachusetts Temp Agency Indicted For Failing to Pay Over Employment Taxes And Obstructing IRS

Allegedly Cashed More than $11 Million in Checks to Pay Workers Under the Table

A federal grand jury sitting in the District of Massachusetts returned an indictment on March 22, which was unsealed today, charging two Massachusetts residents who operated a temporary employment agency with conspiring to defraud the government, failing to pay over employment taxes and obstructing the internal revenue laws, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to the indictment, Huong Le and Tien Chau ran an employment agency that provided temporary labor to businesses in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The agency operated under at least four different names: Central Boston Staffing Services, Metro Boston Staffing Services, General Staffing Inc. and Kim’s Staffing Inc. Le and Chau allegedly used family members and other individuals as nominees to conceal their ownership of the business.

The indictment alleges that from 2006 through 2011, Le and Chau conspired to conceal their agency’s total number of employees from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to lower their employment tax liabilities. Le and Chau allegedly attempted to hide the size of their workforce from the IRS by paying most of their employees cash under the table and causing the filing of false employment tax returns that both underreported the number of their employees and did not report wages paid in cash. Le and Chau allegedly cashed over $11 million in client checks at a check cashing facility in Worcester and used their staffing agency’s site supervisors, office manager and drivers to pay their employees in cash.

The indictment further charges that Le and Chau sought to obstruct an investigation by, among other things, directing an employee, after learning of her interview with special agents, to assist them with shredding the agency’s records. Le and Chau also allegedly destroyed and removed computer disks and computers from the business’s office.
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