NJ temp agency cooks books to make employees disappear

Last Updated: February 5, 2015By Tags: , ,

It’s one thing to be fired or laid off from your job, but when your employer makes you disappear from the books in order to hide money from the government, that really sucks. A temporary agency in Milltown, New Jersey did just that.

A couple and their nephew concocted a scheme to under-report the number of temporary employees on their roster, hiding nearly $30M in income. Yep, you read that correctly: 30 MILLION dollars. I’m sure the New Jersey Attorney General will shut down the scamming ledger-chefs, but just in case, beware of these temporary agencies: Olympus Management Services, AM Professional Services, and Atlantis Personnel.

How did Jenny and Andres Minaya, along with their nephew, Randy Colon, achieve this epic fraud? According to this article, by lying and selling accounts receivables:

The Minayas allegedly lied about the number of employees placed by their companies, estimated to be about 800 at hundreds of businesses throughout the state. By failing to disclose how many workers they’d placed the Minayas avoided paying workers’ compensation premiums and income tax between 2009 and 2013, authorities said.

The alleged scheme also involved a “factoring company”, a type of firm that buys another company’s accounts receivable at a discount. Between 2009 and 2013, the Minayas received $50 million from a factoring company but only reported $15 million, authorities said.

The fraud was discovered when a 2013 audit by Liberty Mutual Insurance uncovered “gross misrepresentations” concerning the number of employees served by Atlantis Personnel, Hoffman’s office said. In response, Minaya reportedly cancelled the Liberty policy — which provided workers’ compensation coverage — and created a new company under the Olympus name, Hoffman also said. The state Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor then began to investigate.

Colon, the Minayas’ nephew, purchased Olympus Management “allegedly in furtherance of the workers’ compensation insurance fraud scheme,” Hoffman’s office said.

Luckily these scammers are now sitting in the Middlesex County jail and looking forward to a possible 20 years in prison.

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