Wendy Sayre, former Ohioan, indicted in IFCO North America illegal-worker ring

Manipulated employment files, authorities say
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Damian G. Guevara
Plain Dealer Reporter


Wendy Sayre's days at Wadsworth High School included student government, the soccer team and a coveted spot on the senior prom court.

Those days must seem like a distant memory to Sayre, who is now married, living in Florida and in the middle of an illegal immigration scandal.

Federal prosecutors say the woman - now Wendy Mudra - was part of a corporate management team that systematically hired illegal immigrants to work in plants across the country.

The 1993 graduate of Wadsworth High School is accused of manipulating employment records of undocumented immigrants while she worked as a human resource manager for IFCO North America.

Mudra, 33, was indicted in February in U.S. District Court in Albany, N.Y., and has pleaded not guilty to charges of bringing in and harboring illegal immigrants.

IFCO runs about 50 plants across the United States, where it recycles and distributes shipping pallets, according to the indictment.

Mudra and four other IFCO managers are accused of setting up an employment system that recruited, hired and transported illegal immigrants. The investigation focused on an IFCO plant in Albany. Its three Ohio plants - in Cincinnati, Columbus and Seville - are not mentioned in the indictment.

The company used false documents to help immigrants maintain work, house the illegal workers and move them from plant to plant to avoid scrutiny from authorities, prosecutors said. Federal investigators have e-mail exchanges between Mudra and other executives in which the managers appear to talk about methods for hiring employees without valid Social Security numbers, according to the indictment.

IFCO issued a statement after the indictment was filed, saying it "did not set out as a matter of corporate strategy to hire undocumented workers or exploit any of our employees."

"We deny, without any equivocation, any allegations or suggestions to the contrary," the statement said.

Mudra is on administrative leave from IFCO. She could not be reached, and her Miami-based lawyer did not return phone calls.

Mudra graduated from Wittenberg University in 1997 and moved to Florida in 1999, according to school newsletters, public records and a professional profile of Mudra on the Internet.

Relatives and former classmates of the woman could not be reached or declined to comment.
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