http://www.theindychannel.com/news/8355916/detail.html

Indiana Businessman Accused Of Harboring Illegal Laborers

POSTED: 6:40 am EST March 30, 2006

FARGO, N.D. -- Authorities say the owner of an Indiana construction company faces charges of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants.

Federal prosecutors say Robert Adrian Porcisanu of Franklin, Ind., used a fraudulent immigrant visa to obtain a Social Security number, incorporate his construction company and hire illegal laborers to work at sites across the country.

Authorities have deported four of those workers, who were traveling from a Wal-Mart construction site in Dickinson to another work site in Wisconsin when they were stopped Oct. 26 by the North Dakota Highway Patrol.

Porcisanu appeared in federal court on Wednesday in Benton, Ill., said Nick Chase, an assistant U.S. prosecutor in Fargo. He said Porcisanu will be brought to North Dakota in the next two weeks to face the charges.

An initial court appearance Monday in Illinois indicates the government may seek Porcisanu's assets, including a bank account worth more than $1 million.

Authorities say Porcisanu didn't claim the pickup used by his workers that was stopped near Fargo. At least three workers couldn't speak English, prompting troopers to call the U.S. Border Patrol.

The men told Border Patrol agents that they worked for Porcisanu, whose Romanian birth certificate says he is actually 28-year-old Iulian Jijie. A search of the vehicle turned up checks used by him to pay the workers.

Investigators later traced the checks from Stucco Design to an Indiana bank, where Porcisanu transferred about $950,000 into a savings account.

The complaint says several large deposits were made into the account after authorities sent him the grand jury subpoena and that Porcisanu used wire transfers to send money to Romania.

During a raid of his property, Porcisanu's secretary and girlfriend, Stephanie Kent, told federal agents that Porcisanu ignored the subpoena and that Stucco Design didn't withhold taxes or Social Security for workers because he considered them independent contractors.

The complaint also said Stucco Design paid the workers by check, provided housing for them near construction sites and advertised in Chicago and Houston for laborers in Spanish newspapers.

Porcisanu registered Stucco Design with the Indiana secretary of state in December 2002. The company is not registered in North Dakota.