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A Lowell, Massachusetts, temporary staffing agency owner was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison after hiding more than $6.2 million in payroll, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. Henry Lam was also ordered to pay $1,652,573 in restitution and will serve two years of supervised release.
How did the payroll scheme work?
Lam owned and operated HL Temporary Services, a Lowell temporary employment agency serving client companies in New England. Clients paid the agency for temporary employees’ work by the hour. Prosecutors said Lam cashed client checks at check-cashing businesses in Massachusetts and paid workers primarily in cash, concealing payroll from official records. The account of the conduct and the amounts below comes from the U.S. Attorney’s Office sentencing announcement of September 30, 2026: the Justice Department’s sentencing announcement.
How much payroll was hidden, and what did it affect?
The sentencing announcement says Lam hid more than $6.2 million in payroll between 2016 and 2023. Prosecutors said the scheme avoided more than $1.5 million in required payroll taxes. They also said Lam used false payroll figures from HL Temporary Services to obtain workers’ compensation insurance at lower premium rates. The announcement does not quantify the premium reduction.
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The DOJ’s earlier May 28, 2026, guilty-plea announcement reported more than $6.1 million in hidden payroll. The later sentencing announcement gives the updated figure of more than $6.2 million; both figures are agency-reported amounts for this case, not independent estimates or industry statistics. The earlier DOJ plea announcement covers the plea-stage account.
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What sentence did Lam receive?
On September 30, 2026, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Denise J. Casper sentenced Lam to 13 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $1,652,573 in restitution. Those are the sentence and restitution amount reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
Key dates in the case
- June 2025: Federal indictment, according to the sentencing announcement.
- July 2025: Lam was arrested.
- May 2026: Lam pleaded guilty to failure to collect and pay over taxes and mail fraud.
- September 30, 2026: He was sentenced in federal court in Boston.
The DOJ announcement says the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts assisted with the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen A. Kearney prosecuted it. It identifies U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley and Thomas Demeo, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Boston, in the announcement. A contemporaneous trade-press report was published by Insurance Journal on October 2, 2026.
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