Providence Woman Cheated IRS Out A Million Dollars Plus

PROVIDENCE, RI—Souleang Kane ran employment agencies that provided Bay State agriculture companies with temporary workers. Between 2010 and 2015, she owned a series of such companies that went by the names Expert Staffing, Affordable Staffing and M&K Temp Inc., according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston. But although she withheld federal taxes from the employees' wages, she never paid the money to the Internal Revenue Service or reported it as payroll taxes. Kane, 48, of Providence, pleaded guilty last October to "18 counts of willful failure to collect and pay over taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and five counts of mail fraud," the U.S. Attorney's office said. She was sentenced Tuesday in Boston federal court.

Kane will serve two years in prison, plus three years of probation. She also must pay restitution. She failed to report $4.3 million in wages and evaded more than $1.3 million in federal taxes, as well as $431,000 in Massachusetts state taxes.

She also "understated her business’ payroll in dealings with her workers’ compensation insurance providers," the government said. "As a result, her workers’ compensation insurance premiums were fraudulently reduced by approximately $165,000 between 2010 and 2015."

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