Results 1 to 10 of 10
Like Tree9Likes

Thread: Grainger County meatplant owner agrees to plead guilty to charges from April ICE raid

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040

    Grainger County meatplant owner agrees to plead guilty to charges from April ICE raid

    Grainger Co plant owner agrees to plead guilty to charges from April ICE raid

    By:

    Posted: Aug 17, 2018 06:50 AM EDT
    Updated: Aug 17, 2018 06:15 PM EDT

    Source: WATE

    BEAN STATION, Tenn. (WATE) - A Grainger County business owner has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an April immigration raid at his business.

    James Brantley, owner of the Southeastern Provisions meat-packing plant in Bean Station, pleaded guilty to two counts of failure to collect taxes, one count of employing illegal aliens and one count of wire fraud.


    Brantley will also pay $1,296,183 in restitution to the IRS and $127,405 to BerkleyNet.


    In April, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division and the Tennessee Highway Patrol were all on hand at Southeastern Provision for a federal criminal search warrant execution that lead to an immigration investigation.


    During the raid on Southeastern Provision in Bean Station, 97 people were found who were subject to removal from the United States.

    Ten of those were arrested on federal criminal charges, one on state charges and 86 on administrative charges. Of the 86 administrative arrests, 54 were placed in detention and 32 were released.


    A search warrant affidavit obtained by WATE 6 On Your Side revealed that federal authorities were tipped off by bank employees about large cash withdrawals from Citizens Bank in Morristown made by employees of Southeastern Provisions.


    An investigation revealed that James Brantley and his wife Pamela Brantley, along with their daughter Kelsey Brantley and Priscilla Keck, an employee, were withdrawing cash to pay employees at the slaughterhouse.


    Investigators say $25 million in cash was withdrawn from the bank accounts beginning in 2008.


    Information on Brantley's sentencing hearing has not yet been released.


    KC Cuberson-Alvarado chairs Hola Lakeway, a non-profit which works to bridge the gap between the Hispanic and Lakeway communities. The group provides resources to immigrant families, from gas money to groceries.


    On the plea, she says "Brantley can feel a little bit of the weight that the families are feeling," and calls this justice.


    Aside from unlawfully employing undocumented workers and withholding tax revenue from their wages, Alvarado also alleges Brantley mistreated employees by overseeing an unsafe work environment and paying unfair wages to the workers.


    While she says Brantley had good intentions by hiring undocumented people, she says he should pay the price for not following proper procedures in certain areas. She also believes as a business owner, Brantley, could have brought real change by advocating on their behalf to lawmakers. She thinks explaining a need for them in his industry would have ultimately cut back some of the red tape and allowed the 97 workers removed in April to obtain work visas.


    She says the surrounding communities are still feeling the impact of the raid. While she explains there aren't necessarily fewer Latino students in the schools, many students are having to switch school districts to be raised by extended families.


    "We're still dealing with the remnants of it. We have families like have lost their homes. We have families that have lost their spouse. So, their spouse has been deported or detained and haven't received bond yet. We have people moving to Texas and Florida so they can live with their mothers and fathers and help take care of their children."


    Today, the meat-packing facility looks to be back to normal, but Alvarado thinks it will take much longer for the people she works with to feel normal.


    Stephanie Teatro, co-executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), reacted in a statement:
    “We are glad that Mr. Brantley is finally being held accountable for some of his egregious employment practices. But these charges could have been brought by the federal government and a plea deal reached without bringing in armed ICE agents into the town and ripping 97 hard-working members of the community from their families. In the four months since the raid, we’ve worked alongside the 97 families who had been the only ones to suffer any consequences from the investigation. The families are still struggling to recover from the devastation of the raid, including many whose loved ones are still being held in detention or who have already been shipped out of the country. By conducting mass worksite raids in Tennessee, Ohio, and Nebraska, the government is instilling fear in workers and making them less likely to report the kind of egregious working conditions that persisted at Southeastern Provision.”

    According to TIRRC, this is the status of the meat-packing workers following ICE raid:


    • 97 arrested in April raid
    • 32 released soon after
    • 54 sent to Louisiana
    • 38 of those sent to LA released on bond
    • 11 signed voluntary departure forms
    • Six still in ICE custody
    • 10 still in federal custody


    https://www.wate.com/news/local-news/business-owner-pleads-guilty-to-charges-from-april-ice-raid-in-grainger-county/1377812060
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  3. #3
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040
    Slaughterhouse owner admits tax evasion after Bean Station ICE raid

    Matt Lakin, Knoxville News Sentinel
    Published 6:00 a.m. ET Aug. 17, 2018 | Updated 3:45 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2018


    Alberto Librado shares his and his family's experiences after his I.C.E. detainment. Caitie McMekin / News Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel


    (Photo: Travis Dorman / USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee)

    Twenty years of hiring undocumented immigrants saved James Brantley millions in taxes on his slaughterhouse.
    He'll learn what that business plan will cost him the next time he appears in federal court.

    Brantley, the owner of the Southeastern Provision meatpacking plant in Bean Station, agreed to plead guilty this week to federal charges of tax evasion, wire fraud and employing unauthorized immigrants. He waived his right to an indictment on the charges, which had been sealed until the filing of his plea agreement Thursday in U.S. District Court in Greeneville.


    Raid of the decade


    Brantley's plea agreement came four months after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and IRS investigators raided the Southeastern Provision plant April 5 in the nation's largest single immigration crackdown in more than 10 years. Officers surrounded the plant on Helton Road in Grainger County and rounded up 97 men and women on charges of illegal entry to the U.S.

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke in a law enforcement conference held inside the Gatlinburg Convention Center. Calvin Mattheis, calvin.mattheis@knoxnews.com


    About three dozen of those workers have come home on bond to await uncertain fates as their cases wind through federal immigration court. Others remain jailed in out-of-state detention centers. Most face waits of as long as two years to learn whether they'll be deported.

    The raid set off a wave of protests statewide and led to failed attempts by state legislators to stiffen penalties for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. Families of those arrested sought an audience with Gov. Bill Haslam, to no avail.


    Making millions


    Brantley began hiring undocumented immigrants, mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, as early as 1988, court records show. At first he didn't even bother to ask for identification but last year began asking for Social Security numbers that he never bothered to verify, prosecutors said. The managers on the killing floor knew it and encouraged workers to submit fake numbers, according to court records.

    At least 10 of those hired had been deported before.


    Hiring undocumented workers gave Brantley the freedom to ignore safety regulations and routinely flout federal wage and hour laws. Workers paid in cash made anywhere from $6 to $10 per hour killing livestock, skinning hides and gutting carcasses and regularly worked well over eight hours per day without drawing overtime, according to court records.

    Southeastern Provision, a cattle slaughterhouse in Bean Station, Tenn., was the target of a federal immigration raid that rounded up 97 people on April 5, 2018. (Photo: Travis Dorman / USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee)


    The plant also had a history of violating U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations and had been fined for shorting farmers on meat prices. Some of the plant's former workers describe working in dirty, unsafe conditions but fearing to speak up.

    Brantley dodged nearly $1.3 million in federal payroll taxes over the past decade, court records show. That's not counting other state and federal fees that went unpaid, such as unemployment and workers' comp premiums. On his tax returns, he claimed most of his employees didn't exist.


    Federal authorities said the charges illustrate the agency's evenhandedness.


    "As we said all along, (ICE) is focused on those who work illegally as well as the employers who knowingly hire them," agency spokesman Bryan Cox said.


    But immigration advocates said Brantley's plea won't make up for the lives disrupted by the April raid.

    "These charges could have been brought by the federal government and a plea deal reached without bringing in armed ICE agents into the town and ripping 97 hardworking members of the community from their families," said Stephanie Teatro, co-director of the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition.


    Brantley hasn't spoken about the case publicly since the raid. A visit to the slaughterhouse last month found it back in business.

    The charges listed in Brantley's plea agreement carry a maximum total sentence of up to 30 years in prison — plus restitution to the IRS — but he'll most likely face far less under court guidelines. He'll appear in court to enter a formal plea Sept. 12.

    https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/...er/1016997002/

    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  4. #4
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040
    Southeastern Provision owner agrees to plead guilty to charges after ICE raid

    Brantley agreed to plead guilty to two counts of willful failure to collect or pay over tax, one count of wire fraud, and one count of employment of unauthorized aliens in a plea agreement filed with the U.S. District Court in Greeneville on Thursday, Aug. 16.


    Author: WBIR Staff
    Published: 7:07 AM EDT August 17, 2018
    Updated: 6:10 PM EDT August 17, 2018

    The owner of a Grainger County meatpacking plant agreed to plead guilty to charges for tax evasion, wire fraud and employing undocumented immigrants that stemmed from a federal immigration raid in April of this year.

    A plea agreement filed Thursday details the methods Southeastern Provision owner James Brantley used to avoid paying nearly $1.3 million in taxes, hire at least 150 undocumented immigrants and withdraw a total of $25 million in cash to pay them in large weekly amounts from a local bank for several years.



    10 of those employees were federally charged for questionable immigration status. According to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, 54 people were sent to an ICE detention facility at the time of the raid. As of Friday, the Coalition says six people are still detained by ICE.
    Brantley agreed to plead guilty to two counts of willful failure to collect or pay over tax, one count of wire fraud, and one count of employment of unauthorized aliens in a plea agreement filed with the U.S. District Court in Greeneville on Thursday, Aug. 16.

    Brantley, as the owner-operator of the slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant, "knowingly hired unauthorized aliens, or caused others within his employ to hire unauthorized aliens, to work as employees at Southeastern Provision," according to the agreement, beginning in 1988 and continuing on until the ICE raid on April 5, 2018.


    PREVIOUS (April 201: Affidavit details alleged worker exploitation, tax fraud at Grainger Co. plant


    Cash Flow


    Over the course of at least 10 years, Brantley withdrew approximately $25 million in cash from Southeastern Provision’s bank accounts at Citizens Bank in Morristown and Bean Station on a weekly basis, the agreement said. At first, the weekly withdrawals were relatively small, but soon increased to about $100,000.

    Approximately 60 to 70 percent of that was used to pay wages to the undocumented immigrants the company had hired so as not to create any kind of paper trail or record, the agreement said.


    Typically, those employees were paid at a rate of about $8 to $10 per hour. Many of those employees also worked overtime, but Brantley did not pay them “time and a half” for that overtime, which is required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

    Hiring Practices


    Brantley had two managers hire undocumented immigrants to work at Southeastern Provision because he "knew he could reduce his expenses by doing so," beginning at least by 2013, the agreement said.

    From then on, the document stated those managers hired undocumented immigrants to work as employees for the company.


    Brantley reportedly hired a third manager more than 20 years ago who is an undocumented immigrant. This manager became a supervisor for the company about five to six years ago, the agreement said, and also hired employees for the company for at least the past five years.


    From 2008 until the ICE raid in April 2018, at least 150 undocumented immigrants were hired as employees at Southeastern Provision. Brantley knew most of these employees were undocumented and hired or caused them to be hired in part because it.


    Brantley knew this would reduce the company's expenses, such as taxes, unemployment insurance premiums and workers' compensation premiums, the agreement said.


    PREVIOUS (April 201: Woes began long before raid, septic failure at meat-packing plant


    Avoiding Taxes


    Law enforcement carried out a search warrant at Southeastern Provision's location in Bean Station, Tennessee on April 5.

    While they did so, they found at least 104 undocumented immigrants working at the company. Of these employees, Brantley knew at least 60 of them were undocumented.

    Brantley, though, reported the company only had 44 wage-earning employees to the Internal Revenue Service, or the IRS, that during the fourth quarter of 2017.

    PREVIOUS (April 201: Following ICE raid, Grainger County mayor worries about local economy


    That meant that while the company owed the United States about $80,000 in FICA taxes, it only paid about $36,000 for the third quarter of 2017.



    Brantley had a history of doing this since at least the first quarter of 2013. Prosecutors determined Brantley and Southeastern Provision underpaid FICA taxes by almost $1.3 million over the course of the past five years after seizing a computer during the execution of the search warrant that had a weekly payroll spreadsheet on it.

    Documents Suddenly Required


    Brantley and those managers hired most of those undocumented immigrants without requiring them to provide documents proving their identities or authorization to work in the U.S. However, Brantley changed this hiring practice around the middle of 2017, the agreement said.

    The company began to tell prospective employees that they would need to provide identification documents, including a social security number. But, managers at the company allegedly told dozens of prospective employees who were undocumented immigrants that they only needed to submit a number, and it did not matter if the number was fake or belonged to them.


    He also then used at least 19 fake social security numbers on various government forms, including those used to calculate unemployment insurance premiums, the agreement stated.


    PREVIOUS (May 201: More guilty pleas after federal raid at Grainger slaughterhouse


    Brantley did not use the voluntary federal program E-Verify, the plea agreement stated. That meant he was responsible for making sure the company had policies and procedures in place that would verify a potential employee could lawfully work in the U.S., but he knew the company did not do this.


    Restitution


    Southeastern Provision also underpaid W.R. Berkley Corporation, its workers’ compensation insurance company, by about $127,000 due to this underreporting, documents state.

    As part of the plea agreement, Brantley agreed to pay restitution to the IRS for $1,296,183 and $127,405 to W.R. Berkley on or before the sentencing date as determined by the Court.


    10News reached out to Brantley's attorney Friday, but have not yet heard back.


    This is a developing story. 10News will continue to update this story with more information.

    https://www.wbir.com/article/news/lo...d/51-585057981

    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  5. #5
    Senior Member 6 Million Dollar Man's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Posts
    1,794
    Quote Originally Posted by JohnDoe2 View Post

    According to TIRRC, this is the status of the meat-packing workers following ICE raid:


    • 97 arrested in April raid
    • 32 released soon after
    • 54 sent to Louisiana
    • 38 of those sent to LA released on bond
    • 11 signed voluntary departure forms
    • Six still in ICE custody
    • 10 still in federal custody


    https://www.wate.com/news/local-news/business-owner-pleads-guilty-to-charges-from-april-ice-raid-in-grainger-county/1377812060
    Wait a minute. Wait one cotton-pickin minute. Most of these illegals were released? What the hell!

  6. #6
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040
    "About three dozen of those workers have come home on bond to await uncertain fates as their cases wind through federal immigration court. Others remain jailed in out-of-state detention centers. Most face waits of as long as two years to learn whether they'll be deported."
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  7. #7
    MW
    MW is offline
    Senior Member MW's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    North Carolina
    Posts
    25,717
    Quote Originally Posted by 6 Million Dollar Man View Post
    Wait a minute. Wait one cotton-pickin minute. Most of these illegals were released? What the hell!
    Yep, out of 97 originally apprehended, 11 were deported and only 16 still in custody. It seems 70 of the original 97 are still walking our streets free as a bird. Catch & release, catch & release, catch & release ..... when is it going to end?

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts athttps://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  8. #8
    Senior Member stoptheinvaders's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2018
    Posts
    3,374
    Quote Originally Posted by 6 Million Dollar Man View Post
    Wait a minute. Wait one cotton-pickin minute. Most of these illegals were released? What the hell!
    Every article I've read recently (and I have read many) most of the illegals were released.
    You've got to Stand for Something or You'll Fall for Anything

  9. #9
    Senior Member stoptheinvaders's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2018
    Posts
    3,374
    11 signed voluntary departure forms

    Since it didn't say they had been deported, they are probably still walking the streets also.

    What happens with a voluntary departure, anyone know?

    Do they provide the transportation or do the taxpayers?
    Are they just trusted to leave?
    Does ICE walk them to the door of the plane and trust they don't jump out the window on the other side?
    You've got to Stand for Something or You'll Fall for Anything

  10. #10
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

Similar Threads

  1. More guilty pleas after federal raid at Grainger slaughterhouse
    By JohnDoe2 in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 05-30-2018, 09:29 AM
  2. Released ICE detainee recalls Grainger County raid
    By JohnDoe2 in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 04-09-2018, 02:37 PM
  3. Louisiana business, owner plead guilty to illegal alien money laundering scheme
    By JohnDoe2 in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 11-14-2012, 01:55 PM
  4. FL-Restaurant owner agrees to plead guilty to imm. crimes
    By FedUpinFarmersBranch in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 07-24-2009, 05:59 PM
  5. 5 IAs plead guilty in Pa. immigration raid
    By zeezil in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 03-05-2008, 05:16 PM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •