LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County District Attorney announced on Jan. 27 that two people from poultry processing company Golden Food Inc. were charged for underreporting payroll to workers’ compensation insurance carriers and failing to pay their employees.

Feng Wu Lam, the owner of Golden Food, and We Wen Wu, her husband and the company’s manager, were charged with 43 felony counts each. The charges include two counts of conspiracy to commit wage theft, 34 counts of grand theft of labor and six counts of insurance fraud. Each defendant also faces two misdemeanor counts of wage theft.

Between 2015 and 2019, Lam and Wu are accused of underreporting their payroll to workers’ compensation insurance carriers by about $4.5 million, resulting in unlawfully avoiding approximately $1.7 million in premiums.

Additionally, the couple is accused of underpaying at least $437,542 to their 34 employees who debone and package chicken.

“Wage theft takes hard-earned money away from working people and their families,” said George Gascón, district attorney of Los Angeles. “Unfair business practices like these affect not just workers but also hurt our community by putting law-abiding employers at a competitive disadvantage.”

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said the defendants are scheduled to be arraigned on March 29.

The case will be prosecuted by the district attorney’s Healthcare Fraud Division, with investigation assistance from the California state Labor Commission and Department of Insurance.