Thread: Dunkin' Donuts owner pleads guilty to recruiting illegal ali

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=5870733&nav=3YeX

Dunkin' Donuts owner pleads guilty to recruiting illegal aliens

(New Haven-WTNH, Dec. 29, 2006 12:40 PM) _ The former owner of the Dunkin' Donuts shoreline chain will be going to federal prison for illegal hiring practices.

On Friday, Jose Calhelha pled guilty to recruiting illegal aliens to come to the United States and work at his stores. He faces up to sixteen months in federal prison.

A Team 8 Investigation last year uncovered workers who were forced to work brutal hours without being paid.

This does not surprise me. The Dunkin Donuts hiers to the franchise aren't much better.

No mention of any fines imposed. $10,000 per illegal sounds good to me.

A Team 8 Investigation last year uncovered workers who were forced to work brutal hours without being paid.

Had they come here legally, they wouldnt have been treated like modern days slaves. Legal immigrants dont worry about going to the authorities because they cant be deported.

They really should impose the fines as well and use the money towards busting other employers.

Bring on the fines.

Give him the time and the fines and deport the illegal workers he hired back to their own countries. Even though they were forced to work long hours for no pay they are criminals just as he is.

Punish both criminals. Send the illegals home and throw the owner in prison and then give him a hefty fine.

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm ... 0581&rfi=6

12/30/2006
Guilford man guilty in illegal alien scheme
Phil Helsel , Register Staff

-NEW HAVEN — A Guilford millionaire accused of one of the largest immigrant smuggling cases in state history reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors Friday, a deal that calls for him to pay $1 million to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Jose Calhelha, 47, also could spend up to 16 months in federal prison. Prosecutors said Calhelha, a native of Portugal, lured at least six of his countrymen to the United States with the promise of legal citizenship and high wages managing his Dunkin’ Donuts stores, but instead treated them little better than slave labor.

Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys were saying much Friday because Calhelha hasn’t been sentenced yet.

But what seemed most important to Calhelha Friday was that his daughter Diana, 23, an Albertus Magnus College senior who apparently played a minor role in the scheme, reach a separate deal that calls for only one year of supervised release and a $3,000 fine.

"We’re gratified that all the charges with regard to his daughter will be dropped," said Jose Calhelha’s attorney, William F. Dow III of New Haven.

Diana Calhelha was initially indicted on felony federal immigration charges that could have sent her to prison for up to 20 years, but pleaded guilty Friday to a misdemeanor count of hiring illegal aliens for knowingly hiring two undocumented Portuguese men while general manager of her father’s stores in 2003.

The elder Calhelha admitted to arranging for at least six Portuguese men to come to the United States and work for him, and he set up an apartment in his name so the men could avoid detection as illegal aliens. He pleaded guilty to one count each of illegally encouraging aliens to come to the United States and harboring aliens.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel and ICE Special Agent Brendon Lundt were reluctant to speak about the case until the Calhelhas are formally sentenced March 19, and it is unclear why the pair was offered the plea deals or whether any of the Portuguese men who came here have been deported.

In announcing the indictment against the Calhelhas in January, U.S. Attorney Kevin J. O’Connor initially alleged that Jose Calhelha encouraged at least 10 Portuguese men to enter the country illegally, by promising them citizenship and high wages through newspaper advertisements, and that he arranged for their travel.

But the most serious federal charge, bringing aliens into the country illegally, was dropped earlier this year after defense attorneys argued that Jose Calhelha never received payment to bring them into the United States and that the men came here on their own. The immigrants at issue in this case arrived on commercial planes and, because they were from Portugal, were allowed legal entry to the country without visas.

Patel said in court Friday that Jose Calhelha advertised for Portuguese men between 25 and 35 years old to manage his Dunkin’ Donuts stores, met with the men in Portugal, and he later hired them knowing that they weren’t legally allowed to work in the United States.

"Mr. Calhelha knew at all times that these individuals, although they came here, were not authorized to work in the United States," she said.

O’Connor also said at the time of the arrest that Jose Calhelha worked the men he smuggled here up to 85 hours a week at his stores and Guilford mansion for as little as $1,000 a month, that he never got them legitimate papers despite charging them "attorney’s fees," and that his stores were under strict orders not to hire "Americans," meaning legal citizens.

As many as 150 illegal immigrants of all nationalities were working at Calhelha’s 10 stores from 2003 to 2005, according to the original indictment. Jose Calhelha sold his 10 Dunkin Donuts’ franchises in Branford, Old Saybrook, Westbrook, East Haven and Derby for $11 million in 2005.

As part of the plea deal, Jose Calhelha will have to pay ICE $1 million and up to $100,000 in any wage restitution to the six Portuguese men he admitted to hiring. Diane Calhelha will have to pay a $3,000 fine for hiring illegal workers.

Diana Calhelha is free on $100,000 bail, and her father has put up $1.5 million in cash, his $2.2 million Greenwood Lane mansion and his $350,000 antique car collection to ensure he appears in court.

What sentence both eventually receive will be up to U.S. District Judge Janet B. Arterton, but the government has agreed not to seek jail time for Diana Calhelha, and to ask for no more than 16 months in prison and three years of supervised release for her father.

Just to be on the safe side - don't eat there! E-coli isn't just confined to spinach and green onions. It doesn't discriminate. It is spread by sneezing, coughing, and dirty unwashed hands. Even donuts can easily be contaminated.

Calhelha, a native of Portugal

If this guy's a naturalized citizen, he should be sent back to Portugal once prison time's been served.