Thread: Contractor admits illegal labor

Last Updated: 12:38 pm | Friday, November 30, 2007
Contractor admits illegal labor
Wolnitzek will forfeit $2M in plea
BY JIM HANNAH | JHANNAH@NKY.COM
Fort Wright Councilman Jeff Wolnitzek has pleaded guilty to using illegal immigrant labor at his Crescent Springs-based construction company.

He will forfeit $2 million earned from employing illegal immigrants, according to a statement released by Wolnitzek's company, Spectrum Interiors.

Recently unsealed federal court documents state the company used the illegal immigrants from August 2002 through Nov. 28, 2006, a day before federal agents detained about 30 illegal immigrants working on the Ascent condominiums in Covington.

Spectrum was a subcontractor hired to help complete the interior of the 22-story tower. The move-in date for the luxury condominiums has since been moved back until early next year, partly because of labor shortages in the construction industry.

Exact terms of the plea agreement likely will be unsealed when U.S. District Judge David Bunning sentences Wolnitzek on Feb. 29.

He pleaded guilty on Nov. 21 to one felony count of conspiracy to harbor aliens for commercial advantage for personal financial gain.

• Spectrum statement (PDF) • Spectrum lawsuit (PDF)

The crime Wolnitzek pleaded to is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for each illegal immigrant employed.

Another subcontractor in a separate case involving illegals, Robert Pratt, received a 1½-year sentence after pleading guilty to the same charge earlier this month.

In addition to Wolnitzek's plea, his company's attorneys negotiated a guilty plea on behalf of Spectrum to one count of harboring aliens for commercial advantage or personal financial gain, aiding and abetting.

Besides the Ascent project, Spectrum's 265 employees have worked on other major construction projects, including Schermerhorn Symphony Hall and Vanderbilt University Children's Hospital, both in Nashville, Tenn.

While Wolnitzek, free while awaiting sentencing, didn't return phone calls, his company released a written statement.

Spectrum and its owner admitted to using subcontractors who employed illegal immigrants, according to the statement. The contractor has since been fired, according to the statement, and the company is cooperating with federal officials.

"Spectrum's own hiring practices have always complied with immigration law; it should have applied its own stringent standards to its subcontractors with more care," read the statement.

Wolnitzek's case is related to the prosecution of Kent Ratliff Jr., 27, of Liberty Township, according to court records.

It's unclear how Ratliff was connected to Spectrum, but court papers said the crime took place during the same time frame Spectrum used illegal immigrants and Ratliff pleaded guilty in October to the same charge as Wolnitzek.

Ratliff could not be reached for comment and his attorney, Gary Sergent, didn't return phone messages.
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Pratt pleads not guilty to fraud charge
Contractor already faces 18 months

By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter



Tennessee contractor Robert Pratt, scheduled to serve 18 months in a federal prison for hiring illegal immigrants to frame new houses in Boone County, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a state fraud charge that he ripped off an insurance company of hundreds of thousands of dollars in premiums.

Pratt, 47, of Franklin, Tenn., is free on bond and supposed to report to prison in January. He faces up to five years if convicted on the state charge.

Boone Circuit Judge Tony Frohlich ordered Pratt to return to court Dec. 12.

Pratt pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Covington last year to knowingly hiring the illegal workers. He was called the ringleader of a group that organized, hired, paid and in some cases transported the workers, most of them from Mexico.

Pratt used his cultural connections to Mexican workers to take advantage of them - he is bilingual and of Mexican descent - and enlisted his own children to set up and run some of his companies, U.S. District Judge David Bunning said during sentencing earlier this month.

In Boone County, the state is charging that Pratt underreported the number of workers he hired and how much business he did to the Kentucky Employers' Mutual Insurance company. The firm is the carrier for most of the workers' compensation insurance in the state.

Because of the false information he reported, the insurance company lost out on $234,302 in premiums, according to court records. Knowingly giving an insurance company incomplete or incorrect information is a felony punishable by one to five years in prison.

In May 2006, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided several Fischer Homes building sites in Boone County, rounding up nearly 100 people. Most were illegal immigrants from Mexico or Central America, but at least a dozen were contractors who provided workers for construction of the homes.

Also arrested were four supervisors from Fischer Homes. A fifth supervisor was subsequently indicted, but the charges against all five were eventually dropped after the key witnesses against them fled the country.

Fischer has not been charged, and its officials deny they knew of any illegal immigrants working for it.

Pratt is the link between Fischer Homes and the illegal workers. Federal prosecutors said his family members set up several companies to provide the illegal immigrants with jobs and housing. Three of his family members - his son, Howard Pratt; his daughter, Jacqueline Pratt-Medina; and his son-in-law, Leopoldo Medina - also pleaded guilty to hiring the workers. They received sentences that ranged from probation to a year in prison.

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /711290357

pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a state fraud charge that he ripped off an insurance company of hundreds of thousands of dollars in premiums.

So the moral of the story, if Pratt was just hiring illegal immigrants he would have never been arrested, but considering the insurance company(big business) was loosing money then what he is doing is wrong.[/i]

I hope these guys get serious jail time. Normally they don't.

I have a copy of a prior case where the business owner got almost two years + a heavy fine.

I want to send a copy of that judges decision to these judges and request they also hand down a sentence that includes serious time.

If you know the judge or might have his contact information, please let me know. Thanks for the help.

Hebron Man Found Guilty Of Fraud

Last Update: 2:43 pm

Web produced by: Jessica Noll

A Boone County man already in prison on federal charges related to unlawful harboring and employment of illegal aliens has pleaded guilty to an insurance fraud charge after lying to his workers’ compensation carrier about the number of employees at his construction business.

The workers’ comp case was investigated by the Kentucky Department of Insurance (DOI) Fraud Investigation Division.

Robert O. Pratt, 49, of Hebron, Ky., has been serving an 18-month sentence on the federal charges and will be released to a federal halfway house Jan. 9.

In the workers’ comp fraud case investigated by DOI, Pratt paid premiums to Kentucky Employers’ Mutual Insurance (KEMI) during 2003-2004 for workers’ compensation coverage but underreported the number of employees at his Florence business, Pratt’s Quality Construction.

He pleaded guilty in Boone Circuit Court to one felony count of insurance fraud and was ordered to pay restitution of $12,546.16 to KEMI and a fine of $2,155.16 to the DOI Fraud Division for investigative costs.

The court also ordered Pratt to pay a fine of $1,000, a $30 monthly supervision fee, and $150 in court costs.

He was sentenced to five years on the insurance fraud charge and granted probation.

“Underreporting the number of employees to a workers’ compensation carrier is a crime,â€

What I want to know is what the IRS will do to them.