White Collar Crime News

Former Owners of Temporary Employment Agency Charged in Massive Cash Payroll Scheme March 18, 2010

Two former owners of a temporary employment agency in Stoughton were charged today with paying more than $24 million dollars in unreported cash to employees of their temporary employment agency as part of a conspiracy to avoid paying more than $7 million dollars in taxes, and hundreds of thousands dollars in workers compensation insurance premiums.

MICHAEL POWERS, age 45, of Wesport, and JOHN MAHAN, age 46, of Stoughton, were charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and their workers compensation insurers, one count of mail fraud, and two counts of false tax returns, all arising out of their operation of a temporary employment agency.

According to the Indictment, between 2000 and 2004, POWERS and MAHAN owned and operated Commonwealth Temporary Services, Inc. It is alleged that in order to avoid paying employment taxes, such as Social Security and Medicare, and to fraudulently reduce the businesses’ insurance premiums, POWERS and MAHAN arranged to pay more than $24 million of their payroll in cash, under the table.

Commonwealth Temporary Services, Inc. supplied hundreds of temporary laborers to businesses throughout Eastern Massachusetts. The amount an employer pays in payroll taxes (FICA) and workers compensation insurance premiums is largely dependent on the size of their payroll. POWERS and MAHAN allegedly lied to both the IRS and their insurers about the size of their payroll, and paid the majority of their employees in cash to make their fraud more difficult to detect.