Spring Hill company owners given prison time for using illegal workers

All three handed a year and a day behind bars

Posted: January 29, 2014 - 6:58pm
By The Capital-Journal

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The owners of a framing company in Spring Hill were sentenced Wednesday to federal prison for harboring undocumented workers, U.S. Attorney for Kansas Barry Grissom said.

Grissom said all three were sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.

The three are:
■ James Humbert, 45, owner of Advantage Framing Systems, Inc.
■ Kimberly Humbert, 47, wife of James Humbert and co-owner of company.
■ Charles Stevens II, 51, brother of Kim Humbert and part-owner of the company.

Grissom said the company provided local builders and contractors with engineered floor, pre-built wall panel, and roof truss systems, along with on-site framing [filtered word] labor.

Each of the three defendants pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens for commercial advantage.

In their pleas, they admitted:
■ In March 2012, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service received information that the owners of company engaged foreign citizens who were not lawfully present in the country.
■ To pay undocumented workers who were members of framing crews, the defendants devised a method of payment requiring crew leaders to obtain insurance. The company paid the crew leaders, who were responsible for paying the undocumented workers on their crews.
■ The company paid approximately $4.6 million to framing crews while the defendants were aware that some of the crew leaders and their crew members weren’t lawfully present in the United States.

http://cjonline.com/news/2014-01-29/spring-hill-company-owners-given-prison-time-using-illegal-workers