Three in Mass. Indicted in $30 Million Payroll Scheme

Three Quincy, Mass. residents have been charged in an under-the-table payroll scheme in which they allegedly paid hundreds of temporary employees, who performed manual labor at factories and warehouses in Massachusetts, a total of approximately $30 million in unreported cash payroll over a 10 year period. The Indictment also alleges that the defendants defrauded the Internal Revenue Service and their workers’ compensation insurers.

Tina Le, Steven Nguyen and Mercedes Tang were charged by a federal grand jury in a 25 count Indictment. The Indictment alleges that from December 1995 through the end of 2004, they owned a temporary employment agency that employed hundreds of workers.It is alleged that the defendants paid most of the employees in cash and did not report the cash payments, as required by law, to the IRS. According to the indictment, over the course of the 10-year conspiracy, the unreported cash payroll totaled approximately $30 million.

Like other employers, the defendants were legally required to pay for their employees’ workers’ comp insurance with insurance premiums based in part on the size of the defendants’ payroll. It is alleged that the defendants fraudulently reduced their insurance premiums by concealing their cash payroll from their insurers.

The defendants concealed their activities through the use of shell corporations, according to officials. The names of the shell corporations were First State Labor, Wonder Fast Labor Services, T. Nguyen Temporary, Mass Labor Services, Labor Staffing, and Star
Labor Staffing.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Insurance Fraud Bureau.