Lowell man sentenced to prison for hiding more than $6 million in payroll

Date: Sept. 30, 2026

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Boston – A Lowell man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for his involvement in payroll tax avoidance and workers’ compensation insurance fraud. 

Henry Lam was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Denise J. Casper to 13 months in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release. Lam was also ordered to pay $1,652,573 in restitution. Lam was arrested in July 2025, following his June 2025 indictment, and pleaded guilty to failure to collect and pay over taxes and mail fraud in May 2026.

Between 2016 and 2023, Lam owned and operated HL Temporary Services – a temporary employment agency in Lowell that served client companies in New England. The client companies paid HL Temporary Services for the temporary employees’ work on an hourly basis. Lam cashed these client’s checks at check cashing businesses in Massachusetts and paid the temporary employees primarily in cash. By using cash payments, Lam hid over $6.2 million in payroll and avoided paying more than $1.5 million in required payroll taxes. Lam also used HL Temporary Services’ false payroll numbers to obtain worker’s compensation insurance at lower premium rates. 

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Thomas Demeo, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen A. Kearney of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.

IRS-CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. It is the only federal law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. IRS-CI has 16 field offices located across the U.S. and maintains an international presence through attaché posts abroad.