SCRANTON — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle), published as received.

SCRANTON- The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that Nari T. Lam, age 29, of Wilmington, Delaware, was charged in a criminal Information on May 10, 2022, with failing to remit employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

According to United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, the Information alleges that from 2016 through 2020, Lam, the owner of Pennsylvania-based temporary staffing company, Penns Independent Staffing, failed to pay approximately $300,000 in employment taxes owed by Penns Independent Staffing to the IRS.

One other individual, Mark Holmes, age 66, of Hughes Springs, Texas, was previously charged in this investigation.  Holmes pleaded guilty to accepting, as the General Manager of a Pennsylvania food services company, approximately $400,000 in bribes and kickbacks from two temporary staffing companies, one of which was Penns Independent Staffing, in exchange for hiring their employees.  The two temporary staffing companies, in turn, received approximately $7,800,000 from Holmes’s employer.

Holmes also pleaded guilty to failing to remit employment taxes to the IRS for a separate temporary staffing company, Encore Staffing Solutions LLC, that he owned and operated with other coconspirators.  From March 2018 through December 2020, Holmes and his coconspirators allegedly failed to pay approximately $135,000 in employment taxes owed by Encore Staffing Solutions LLC to the IRS.  Holmes awaits sentencing.

The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigations Division.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip J. Caraballo is prosecuting the case.

The maximum penalty under federal law is five years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine. A sentence following a finding of guilt is imposed by the Judge after consideration of the applicable federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

Informations are only allegations. All persons charged are presumed to be innocent unless and until found guilty in court.

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