By Katie Mulvaney
Journal Staff Writer
Cheang Chea, owner of a temporary employment agency, who failed to pay millions of dollars in federal payroll taxes, at his home in Providence.
The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers
PROVIDENCE — Cheang Chea says he spent five months in a forced labor camp in Cambodia in the 1970s as punishment for supporting America.
Now, the 73-year-old Cambodian refugee faces up to 35 years in prison in the country he fled to after admitting he failed to pay $7 million to $20 million in federal withholding taxes for non-English speaking workers he placed in manufacturing jobs.
“I am going to go to jail by America, too,” Chea said Wednesday, standing in the doorway of his brick colonial house on Smith Hill.
Chea pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Tuesday to mail fraud, tax evasion and embezzling $51,000 in Medicare money. The government estimates that from 2004 to 2008, he underreported — by $17.3 million to $49.6 million — the wages of the more than 200 workers his firm, S & P Help Services Inc., placed in temporary jobs.
Prosecutors say Chea supplied temporary workers to about 30 manufacturers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. (Chea places the number at 10.) Jim Martin, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha, would not identify the businesses, but said Chea’s firm handled the payroll for the temporary employees, including paying taxes and covering workers’ compensation insurance.
The companies would send S & P a check to cover the employees’ pay, and, in some cases, Chea would cash checks of more than $200,000, Martin said. Chea paid most of the employees in cash, he said. He declined to say whether Chea paid the workers appropriate wages.
A Buddhist, Chea says he was trying to help poor people, many of whom did not speak English and came from Cambodia, Laos, China and Spanish-speaking countries. Contrary to the government’s assertions that some were illegal immigrants, Chea says the workers he found jobs for out of offices in Providence and Attleboro are here legally. A spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not comment on the case.
“I try to help people,” said Chea, who shared bits of his story on the front stoop of his 150 Home Ave. house as a light rain fell on his well-kept lawn and a black Mercedes sedan sat in his garage. He told of becoming emaciated during his months in the labor camp and of people being publicly executed for stealing fruit. He was among 2 workers out of 13 working for a hydroelectric plant not to be executed by the Khmer Rouge, he said. He fled Cambodia in 1979, arriving in the United States as a refugee two years later.
News of Chea’s guilty plea shocked the immigrant community Wednesday, where he was known as a generous man who donated money to Buddhist temples in Rhode Island, as well as large sums to build a hospital in Cambodia. He gave money to friends in need.
“He was helping rebuild Cambodia is what he’s doing, and helping get people jobs here,” said Molly Soum, former president of the Cambodian Society of Rhode Island. “He has given a lot of jobs to people in the community.”
Chea secured assembly-line jobs in jewelry manufacturing and as machinists, Soum said. They were often paid $5, $6 and $7 an hour, she said. (The state minimum wage is $7.40.)
“They do whatever … as long as they have food,” Soum said. It is sad, she said, to hear Chea is facing prison time, but equally disappointed that he paid people low wages.
She speculated that his crimes might have been preventable. “People from our country don’t take taxes seriously,” she said.
For his part, Chea seems resigned to the fact that he will do jail time, but he says it won’t compare to his months in prison in Cambodia. He plans to keep running his business until he is sentenced in October.
kmulvane@projo.com
Now, the 73-year-old Cambodian refugee faces up to 35 years in prison in the country he fled to after admitting he failed to pay $7 million to $20 million in federal withholding taxes for non-English speaking workers he placed in manufacturing jobs.
“I am going to go to jail by America, too,” Chea said Wednesday, standing in the doorway of his brick colonial house on Smith Hill.
Chea pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Tuesday to mail fraud, tax evasion and embezzling $51,000 in Medicare money. The government estimates that from 2004 to 2008, he underreported — by $17.3 million to $49.6 million — the wages of the more than 200 workers his firm, S & P Help Services Inc., placed in temporary jobs.
Prosecutors say Chea supplied temporary workers to about 30 manufacturers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. (Chea places the number at 10.) Jim Martin, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha, would not identify the businesses, but said Chea’s firm handled the payroll for the temporary employees, including paying taxes and covering workers’ compensation insurance.
The companies would send S & P a check to cover the employees’ pay, and, in some cases, Chea would cash checks of more than $200,000, Martin said. Chea paid most of the employees in cash, he said. He declined to say whether Chea paid the workers appropriate wages.
A Buddhist, Chea says he was trying to help poor people, many of whom did not speak English and came from Cambodia, Laos, China and Spanish-speaking countries. Contrary to the government’s assertions that some were illegal immigrants, Chea says the workers he found jobs for out of offices in Providence and Attleboro are here legally. A spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not comment on the case.
“I try to help people,” said Chea, who shared bits of his story on the front stoop of his 150 Home Ave. house as a light rain fell on his well-kept lawn and a black Mercedes sedan sat in his garage. He told of becoming emaciated during his months in the labor camp and of people being publicly executed for stealing fruit. He was among 2 workers out of 13 working for a hydroelectric plant not to be executed by the Khmer Rouge, he said. He fled Cambodia in 1979, arriving in the United States as a refugee two years later.
News of Chea’s guilty plea shocked the immigrant community Wednesday, where he was known as a generous man who donated money to Buddhist temples in Rhode Island, as well as large sums to build a hospital in Cambodia. He gave money to friends in need.
“He was helping rebuild Cambodia is what he’s doing, and helping get people jobs here,” said Molly Soum, former president of the Cambodian Society of Rhode Island. “He has given a lot of jobs to people in the community.”
Chea secured assembly-line jobs in jewelry manufacturing and as machinists, Soum said. They were often paid $5, $6 and $7 an hour, she said. (The state minimum wage is $7.40.)
“They do whatever … as long as they have food,” Soum said. It is sad, she said, to hear Chea is facing prison time, but equally disappointed that he paid people low wages.
She speculated that his crimes might have been preventable. “People from our country don’t take taxes seriously,” she said.
For his part, Chea seems resigned to the fact that he will do jail time, but he says it won’t compare to his months in prison in Cambodia. He plans to keep running his business until he is sentenced in October.
kmulvane@projo.com
3 comments:
This man is a very good person both to his family and to his community. We is very well respected and love by those who know him.
"Never judge the book by it cover". I, too knew this family since we were in the Camp in Thailand. The whole family is a RATS. All of his family are driving Mercedes new model every year. Where the money come from? We work our ass off couldn't even afford Hyndai.
just look at his brother Eang Mally robbed cambodian people in Cambodia now he own couples of gas station in California. He never work in the US not even for 10 minutes how can he have money to buy such gas station? The whole family will stabbed you in the back once you turn around. The whole thing here doesn't surprise me I always ask my self where do these people got the money from buy such houses and mercedes like woman changing their cloths.
He is destoying America. People like that will prevent the true info to their workers in ordered to corrupt over them, which means civil right violation. People like that are supporting illegal people and decreaing federal incomes. People like that are destroying economy, which we are facing right now.
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