June 25, 2024
A staffing executive and a buyer were both sentenced to prison for schemes that involved bribery and nonpayment of federal employment taxes, the US Department of Justice said in an announcement on June 21.
The staffing exec, Danny Sing, 61, of Philadelphia, was sentenced to 27 months in prison, according to the department. Sing pleaded guilty to conspiring to not paying $1.36 million in federal employment taxes.
Sing was an operator and manager of Global Staffing Services, which was based in Philadelphia, according to court records. The department said Sing and others paid employees in cash to conceal income and wages from the IRS. Sing also pleaded guilty to paying $400,000 in bribes to managers at the staffing firms’ clients in exchange for business. Sing and others received more than $16.5 million from one Pennsylvania food services company for their firms.
In addition, Sing failed to file personal tax returns from 2014 through 2020 despite spending more than $1 million at local casinos, according to the department.
Separately, staffing buyer Mark Holmes, 67, of Muskogee, Oklahoma, pleaded guilty to accepting $400,000 in bribes and kickbacks from Global Staffing Services and Penns Independent Staffing in exchange for hiring their employees, according to the department. Holmes was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The staffing firms received $7.8 million from Holmes’ employer, the department said. Holmes also pleaded guilty to failing to pay approximately $135,000 in employment taxes to the IRS that were owed by Encore Staffing Solutions, another temporary staffing firm that he owned and operated.
The incidents with Sing took place between 2013, and the incidents with Holmes took place between 2014 and 2020.
“No one wants to go to jail, but the sentence was fair, with all of the circumstances,” Chuck Peruto, Sing’s attorney, said in an email to SIA.
An attorney for Holmes has also been contacted for comment.
The Department of Justice noted five other individuals were previously prosecuted in this investigation:
- Madeline Nieves, age 49, of Plains, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to a tax fraud conspiracy, according to the department. Nieves was sentenced to six months in prison. She conspired with other individuals to defraud the IRS from 2018 to 2020 in connection with staffing company Encore Staffing Solutions, which she owned and operated with Holmes. Nieves failed to report employee wages to the IRS, resulting in approximately $67,000 in employment taxes owed but never paid. Nieves also failed to report her own personal income from Encore Staffing Solutions to the IRS.
- Nari Lam, age 31, of Wilmington, Delaware, pleaded guilty to failing to remit employment taxes to the IRS, according to the Justice Department. Lam was sentenced in November 2023 to three years’ probation. Lam owned Penns Independent Staffing from 2016 through 2020 and failed to pay $300,000 in employment taxes.
- Den Lam, age 49, of Philadelphia was charged in an information alleging that he conspired with other individuals to evade federal income taxes for approximately $1.6 million in wages paid by Global Staffing Services. Lam also was charged with failing to withhold and remit approximately $1.36 million in federal employment taxes owed but never paid by Global Staffing Services.
- Jason R. Bonnewell, age 41, of North Abington Township, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to accepting, as a supervisor of the Pennsylvania food services company, approximately $150,000 in bribes and kickbacks from Global Staffing Services and Penns Independent Staffing, according to the department. Bonnewell received the money in exchange for hiring the staffing firms’ employees. The two staffing firms, in turn, received approximately $13.0 million from Bonnewell’s employer. Bonnewell also pleaded guilty to failing to disclose cash income on his personal tax returns. He awaits sentencing after pleading guilty on May 2 of this year.
- Jose L. Ortiz, age 48, of Drums, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit honest services fraud, according to the department. Ortiz was a manager and director at a Pennsylvania food services company from 2014 to 2021 who along with his co-conspirators accepted cash bribes and other things of value from other co-conspirators who owned and operated Global Staffing and Penns Independent. In exchange for the kickbacks, Ortiz and his co-conspirators entered contracts with the staffing firms and hired their employees, paying them over $18.0 million, according to the department.