Camden Businessman and Associate Charged with Conspiracy to Commit Tax Fraud

CAMDEN, N.J. — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - New Jersey), published as received.

CAMDEN, N.J. – Two men from Camden, New Jersey, were indicted for their roles in conspiring to defraud the IRS by concealing cash wages paid to a business’s employees, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today.

Tri Anh Tieu, 53, and Andy Tran, 49, both of Camden, New Jersey, were both charged with one count of conspiring to defraud the United States. They were arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth A. Pascal in Camden federal court on Oct. 2, 2024, and were each released on $100,000 unsecured bond.

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

Tieu owed Tri States Staffing LLC, a business based in Pennsauken, New Jersey. Tran was an employee of Tri States Staffing who, at times, served as its representative. Tri States Staffing provided temporary workers to New Jersey businesses located in Gloucester and Burlington Counties. As part of its agreement with its customer businesses, Tri States Staffing was responsible for collecting and paying over to the IRS the payroll taxes due and owing on the wages paid to the temporary workers provided by Tri States Staffing.

Between the third quarter of 2018 and the second quarter of 2022, Tri States received more than $2.5 million in payments from its customer businesses. Tieu and Tran paid Tri States’s employees in cash and failed to pay over the payroll taxes due and owing on those wages. Tieu and Tran also filed false individual income tax returns that falsely omitted the income each received from Tri States Staffing. Tieu spent at least some of the unpaid payroll taxes on personal expenditures, including gambling.

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.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Amy MacNeely in Philadelphia and Special Agent in Charge Jenifer L. Piovesan in Newark, with the investigation leading to the charge.

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

The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.