Sicklerville Man Admits To Conspiring To Commit Tax Fraud

CAMDEN, N.J. – A Sicklerville, New Jersey, man today admitted to conspiring to defraud the IRS by working with others to conceal cash wages paid to employees, Acting U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna announced.

Chung “Alex” Lam, 46, of Sicklerville, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Edward S. Kiel to an information charging him with one count of conspiring to defraud the United States.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

In 2018, Lam pleaded guilty in federal court to failing to pay over to the IRS payroll taxes.  He received an 18-month prison sentence, which he served during parts of 2019 and 2020.  Prior to serving that sentence and upon his release from custody, Lam conspired with the owners of various temporary staffing companies to defraud the IRS.  The temporary staffing companies provided temporary workers businesses. As part of their agreements with their customer businesses, the temporary staffing companies were responsible for collecting and paying over to the IRS the payroll taxes due and owing on the wages paid to the temporary workers.

Lam received checks that were payments to the staffing companies for labor provided by their employees.  Between the first quarter of 2018 and the second quarter of 2023, Lam used a commercial check casher to negotiate more than $4,000,000 of such checks.  Lam kept a portion of the cash for personal use and caused the rest of the cash to be provided to co-conspirators to pay the temporary workers in cash.  As a result, payroll taxes were not collected or paid to the IRS.  Lam also filed false individual income tax returns that omitted the income he earned from his role in the conspiracy.  Lam admitted that the conspiracy caused a tax loss of approximately $628,351.

The count of conspiracy to defraud the United States carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.  Sentencing is scheduled for June 16, 2025.

Acting U.S. Attorney Khanna credited special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jenifer L. Piovesan in Newark, with the investigation leading to today’s plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bender of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Camden.

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Defense counsel: John B. Brennan, Esq., of Marlton, NJ