By: Najla Alexander
NJ authorities announced that a Sicklerville man was sentenced yesterday to 40 months in prison for conspiring to defraud the IRS by working with others to conceal cash wages paid to employees.
U.S. Attorney Alina Habba stated that Chung “Alex” Lam, 46, of Sicklerville, previously 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; Judge Kiel imposed the sentence in Camden federal court.
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, according to NJ officials. 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, NJ authorities stated.
The temporary staffing companies provided temporary workers to businesses, NJ officials say.
NJ officials stated that 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, NJ officials say.
According to NJ authorities, 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, NJ officials stated.
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, according to NJ officials. Lam admitted that the conspiracy caused a tax loss of approximately $628,351.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Kiel sentenced Lam to 3 years of supervised release.