Details emerge of Rostraver murder-for-hire plot

A Westmoreland County detective testified Wednesday that a Philadelphia man paid $65,000 to have a business associate shot and killed last November in the parking lot of a Rostraver strip mall.

Prosecutors contend Keven Van Lam, 57, ordered and financed the hit on a man who he paid about $800,000 to in 2019 to buy a staffing agency that provided about 500 temporary workers to a Charleroi-based meat packer.

Following a lengthy preliminary hearing at the Westmoreland County Courthouse, Monessen District Judge Wayne Vlasic ruled Lam can be tried on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit homicide, solicitation to commit a murder, and tampering with evidence.

Lam is being held in jail without bond.

“We have a planned murder,” said Assistant District Attorney Anthony Iannamorelli. “None of this is put in place were it not for the defendant starting this.”

Detective Rick Kranitz testified Lam believed 49-year-old Boyke Budiarachman, also of Philadelphia, was sabotaging his newly bought business. Lam continued to make biweekly $8,000 additional payments to ensure his employees remained working at the meat packing plant, where Budiarachman worked as a human resources employee.

After the purchase Lam claimed Budiarachman operated a competing staffing agency and started diverting workers from his agency to work at the plant.

Kranitz testified Lam told investigators he harbored resentment toward his victim for about two years and finally set the plan in motion that resulted in Budiarachman’s death.

Prosecutors contend Lam met Budiarachman for dinner last Nov. 5 at the Samurai Restaurant in the Rostraver Square Shopping Plaza and notified a hit man when the target walked out to the parking lot following their meal.

Budiarachman was shot twice, including a fatal shot in the top of his head, Kranitz testified.

Prosecutors have not identified the hit man, but surveillance video of the parking lot at the time of the shooting depicted how the fatal shooting occurred, according to investigators.

“I saw the person,” Kranitz testified. “I know how the person was dressed, in a florescent orange vest, and he acted as a lot attendant. I identified him as a black male.”

Lam was in his vehicle. He drove to Philadelphia after the shooting where he left a bag with $65,000 in cash for the man he hired to arrange Budiarachman’s killing, he told investigators during an interrogation two days later at the Rostraver Police Department.

Kranitz testified that Lam initially claimed he had no involvement in the killing. But Lam later confessed that he hired a man he identified as “Mr. Tuan” to arrange to have Budiarachman hit in the leg with a baseball bat; he later claimed the plot called for the victim to be shot in the leg.

Lam, a U. S citizen who came to the country three decades ago, spoke in heavily accented English during the interrogation, which was recorded and played in court on Wednesday. He was assisted in court by a Vietnamese translator.

“I was losing business (because) of him and he’s taking my people,” Lam told police.

Defense attorneys David Shrager and Lyle Dresbold said Lam’s confession should be discounted because of the language barrier. Lam told investigators he understood about 60% of what was said during the interrogation.

Dresbold argued Lam never intended for Budiarachman to be killed.

“Mr. Lam did not shoot anyone, kill anyone,” Dresbold said. “At no time did he say he committed criminal homicide.”

Lam has been in jail for nearly a year as the investigation proceeded in secrecy.

Prosecutors waited weeks before releasing the victim’s identity and filed the criminal charges against Lam under seal. The charging documents were made public on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, prosecutors confirmed that investigators have not identified the man who shot and killed Budiarachman or and have yet to charge the man Lam is suspected of hiring to arrange the hit.

Lam, in addition to his Pittsburgh-based lawyers, also appeared in court with Philadelphia lawyers Michael T. van der Veen and William J. Brennan, who in 2021 represented former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.