Staffing agency owner sentenced for failure to pay $3.6M in taxes on illegal workers

Andy Ha, 28, of Belle Vernon pleaded guilty in February to harboring illegal aliens for financial gain and failure to pay employment taxes.

By the MVI

A Belle Vernon man who ran a temporary staffing agency and failed to pay $3.6 million in employment taxes for illegal employees will serve 2 1/2 years in federal prison.

Andy Ha, 28, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. He pleaded guilty in February to failure to pay taxes and harboring illegal aliens for financial gain.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ha owned Prosperity Services Inc., which provided workers to companies in the Charleroi area.

Investigators said Ha provided employment, housing and transportation for more than 25 workers who were not legally permitted to be in — or work — in the United States.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Ha provided Prosperity’s tax return preparer false spreadsheets that listed only the company’s employees who were authorized to work in the U.S. and were paid by check.

That spreadsheet, the government said, listed less than 10% of Prosperity’s total workers.

The company’s quarterly filings, the prosecution said, dramatically understated the amount of employment tax due each quarter.

The sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of 30 to 37 months incarceration.

In a sentencing memorandum, Ha’s attorney said Ha is a hard worker who has three sons. He urged the government to find that Ha deserved a reduction in his sentence, arguing he was a minor participant in the crime.

But the government disagreed, writing that Ha was the most culpable in the scheme. He knowingly and willfully signed the false tax returns and chose to withhold the taxes, it said. He also chose to drive to Philadelphia to cash checks so he could pay the illegal workers in cash.

“He was therefore aware of the nature and scope of the criminal enterprise, was the central figure in the crime, and his actions were integral to the success of the crime,” the government wrote.

In addition, the prosecution argued, Ha’s sentence should be harsh enough to deter others from committing the same crimes.

“In harboring employees who were not legally authorized to be or work in the United States, Prosperity secured for itself a reliable and cheap workforce,” the government said.

“This provided Prosperity with an unfair advantage over staffing agencies that sought to provide workers who were legally authorized to be and work in the United States.”

Prosperity supplied employees to Fourth Street Foods, but the business was not named in any official documents.

Fourth Street Foods makes prepared meals that are sold in grocery stores across the country and is one of the area’s largest employers.

Owned by Dave Barbe Sr., Fourth Street Foods is headquartered in the Speers Industrial Park, where it occupies four buildings. It supports 1,300 employees, both full-time employees and immigrants from staffing agencies who live in the Washington County area. About 600 of the employees are legal immigrants from dozens of counties.

In October, when the investigation was still ongoing, Barbe Sr. confirmed he had been subpoenaed by the U.S. District Attorney’s Office. He said he provided all of documentation and information they requested — including payroll records to the staffing agency — and he has not been asked to supply any new or additional information in the investigation against Prosperity ahead of the charges.

Barbe Sr. told the Mon Valley Independent in February he asked each of the staffing agencies that he used to have independent audits completed to verify the employees at his company are legally able to work. Barbe Sr. told the MVI he stopped using Prosperity months ahead of Ha’s guilty plea in February.