Business, Crime

Rosedale business owner pleads guilty to federal tax charges for failing to pay employment taxes

ROSEDALE, MD—Jimmy Danh, 60, formerly of Rosedale, pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and failure to pay over-employment taxes.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur and Special Agent in Charge Thomas Fattorusso of the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Philadelphia Field Office.

According to his guilty plea, from 2007 to 2017, Danh and co-conspirator Darasomalee Thach operated a series of companies that supplied temporary staffing to businesses in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Although Danh and Thach were responsible for payment of employment taxes to the IRS, they purposely failed to withhold and pay over employment taxes in order to maximize their personal profit.

As detailed in the plea agreement, beginning in 2007, Danh and Thach incorporated a company, Team Work, Inc., to operate a labor-leasing business to secure day-labor contracts, and agreed to evade employment taxes in order to maximize profits. From October 1, 2011, to September 30, 2015, Team Work, Inc. paid wages totaling approximately $1,611,894.04 to its workers. Danh and Thach did not maintain business records relating to the operation of Team Work, including employees, payroll, and tax withholdings. Clients paid Team Work lump sum payments for all of the hours that employees worked, with the agreement that Team Work was responsible for paying its employees and for all employment-related withholdings.

Danh admitted that for tax years 2011 to 2015, he and Thach failed to consistently file an Employer’s Quarterly Federal Income Tax Return, and failed to report to IRS all wages paid to Team Work employees, resulting in underreporting the employee share of the Social Security and Medicare taxes in the amount of $113,144.19, and the withholding taxes in the amount of approximately $252,827.81.

From about October 31, 2015 to October 31, 2017, Danh conducted his business via a Maryland corporation, JD Team Work, Inc., and undertook the same scheme. During this time, Danh willfully failed to file Employer’s Quarterly Federal Income Tax Returns, and to withhold Social Security, Medicare, and employment taxes. During this time, the total amount of taxes Danh failed to pay was $183,758.23.

Danh admitted that the total amount of taxes he failed to pay from 2007 to the present was $549,730.23. As stated in his plea agreement, as a special condition of his supervised release, Danh will be required to execute a Closing Agreement with the IRS in order to resolve tax liabilities for tax years 2007 through 2017.

“Jimmy Danh’s insatiable greed for money placed his workers at risk of losing future Social Security and Medicare benefits,” said Fattorusso. “His criminal conduct also resulted in a loss of revenue to the United States Government. His guilty plea today should serve as a stark warning that IRS Criminal Investigation will vigorously pursue anyone who seeks to profit at the expense of their workers and honest taxpayers.”

Darasomalee Thach previously pleaded guilty to related charges in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg and is awaiting sentencing.

Danh faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each of the two counts. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. U.S. District Judge George L. Russell, III has scheduled sentencing for February 23, 2021, at 1:00 p.m.

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