Police agencies reap $2.4M from forfeiture


By ROBERT GAVIN Staff writer

Updated 09:29 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2011


ALBANY -- State Police and three Capital Region law enforcement agencies have reaped $2.4 million forfeited by IFCO Systems of North America for employing illegal immigrants.

State Police have received $2,160,000, Schenectady Police $120,000 and both Guilderland Police and the Albany County district attorney's office will get $60,000, federal authorities have announced.

John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, presented the check to State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico on Sunday night at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Chicago.

The money was forfeited by IFCO, a Houston-based company which employed as many as 6,000 illegal immigrants at pallet plants around the country between 2003 and 2006. It was exposed in the largest workplace raids in American history.

Some 45 IFCO plants in 26 states were raided following an investigation by the immigration department -- a probe that began with a tip authorities received that immigrant workers at an IFCO plant in Guilderland were tearing up their W-2 tax forms.

In December 2008, IFCO reached a corporate settlement with the U.S. Attorney's office for the Northern District, which covers the Capital Region. The company agreed to pay nearly $20.7 million over four years, which breaks down to $18.1 million in forfeitures to support future law enforcement and nearly $2.6 million in overtime compensation and civil penalties in connection with IFCO's overtime violations with some 1,700 pallet workers.

So far. IFCO has paid about $14.7 million. The remaining $6 million is due in early 2012, ICE and U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian announced.

In January, officials announced the initial windfall from the settlement, which brought $2.2 million for State Police operations and $122,000 divided between Guilderland police and Albany County prosecutors.

Sixteen defendants in IFCO leadership positions have pleaded guilty to federal offense -- 11 in New York and five in Texas, authorities said.

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