Bakery Owner Who Hired Illegal Workers Given Probation, Fined
Michael Malecot, Owner And President Of The French Gourmet Pleaded Guilty In October

10news.com
City News Service contributed to this report
UPDATED: 12:39 pm PST December 22, 2011

SAN DIEGO -- A Pacific Beach bakery owner who brazenly hired illegal immigrants for several years was sentenced Thursday and ordered to pay a hefty fine.

Michael Malecot, owner and president of The French Gourmet Inc., pleaded guilty Oct. 13 to a misdemeanor charge related to his practice of hiring and employing illegal immigrants, which he had been doing since 2003 even though he was fined by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the 1990s for giving work to illegal immigrants.

He was sentenced to five years of probation and fined $386,000.

As Malecot admitted in his guilty plea, there was evidence proving that 91 illegal immigrants were employed unlawfully at the bakery on Turquoise Street.

Malecot also admitted to repeated acts of re-hiring illegal immigrants even after the company received "no-match" letters from the Social Security Administration notifying them that the employees' names did not match the Social Security numbers reported on tax returns.

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