Thread: Sorrento grocer gets prison in illegal-immigrant check-cashi

Sorrento grocer gets prison in illegal-immigrant check-cashing scheme
County Sheriff's Office By Stephen Hudak, Orlando Sentinel

August 30, 2010

The former owner of the Sorrento Grocery, who admitted cashing payroll checks for undocumented workers during the construction boom in Lake County, has been sentenced to two years in federal prison.

From 2004 through 2008, Andrew Lemine, 54, of Paisley cashed more than $4 million in payroll checks from J. Trubenbach Construction, knowing that the owners of the company had directed undocumented workers on their payroll to his small grocery, located at the intersection of State Road 46 and County Road 437.

Federal authorities said the construction company, now defunct, wanted to hide the workers' illegal status and avoid paying workers compensation and employment taxes. Lemine earned a fee for each check he cashed.

Though his illegal earnings were never fully disclosed, Lemine was forced by prosecutors to forfeit $690,000 from a business account. The funds were deemed to be proceeds from illegal money transmitting.

Lemine, who no longer owns the grocery in Sorrento, did not require check-cashers to provide photo IDs, fingerprints or other routine security measures that licensed money-transmitters are required by law to follow.

He pleaded guilty earlier this year to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, a federal offense investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

Lemine also admitted he cashed 97 Trubenbach checks for $53,475 that were made out to "Lando Munez," a fictitious person. The name translates literally to "land money" and the cash was used for a real-estate investment.

Lemine's plea agreement includes a clause that could reduce his sentence if federal prosecutors decide that his cooperation in other investigations qualifies as "substantial assistance" to law enforcement.

U.S. District Court Judge William Terrell Hodges allwed the defense to file a sentencing memorandum in confidence to protect the grocer's cooperation with authorities. Prosecutors said secrecy was needed to protect active investigations.

Stephen Hudak can be reached at shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5930.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/loc ... 5553.story

September 2, 2010

Grocer Caught Helping Construction Company Hide Employment of Illegal Workers
By Texas GOP Vote

A grocery store owner in Florida will now face prison time for his involvement in a construction company’s scheme to hide their hiring of illegal aliens by paying them in cash.

ConstructionCitizen.com highlighted this news story about the sentencing of Andrew D. Lemine of Paisley, FL, who cashed the checks of John Trubenbach Construction for 5 years, knowing that the construction company was using the cash for their payroll of undocumented workers.

A release from the Department of Justice states:

According to court documents, between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2008, Lemine cashed at Sorrento Grocery approximately $4,065,896.00 in checks from a local construction company in return for a fee of between 1% and 1.5% of the checks’ face value.

The fact that Lemine was not hiring the illegals himself did not stop him from being convicted of “operating an unlicensed money-transmitting businessâ€