Thread: Business owner pays $1.5 mil, for harboring illegals

http://nyjtimes.com/cover/12-24-06/Busi ... legals.htm

Business Owner Must Forfeit $1.5 Million
for Conspiring to Harbor Illegal Aliens



FARGO, North Dakota (ICE) -- The owner of an Indiana company that performed stucco-related services at construction sites in at least seven Midwest states agreed to forfeit more than $1.5 million after pleading guilty to conspiring to harbor illegal aliens.

Robert Adrian Porcisanu, a 28-year-old citizen of Romania who is also known as Iulian Jijie, and his Franklin, Ind., business Stucco Design Inc., agreed to forfeit $1,581,000, which represents the proceeds of Porcisanu's illegal business activity. Porcisanu was also sentenced to 18 months in prison. After finishing his prison sentence, ICE will place him in deportation proceedings.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices in Minot and Grand Forks, N.D., and Indianapolis, Ind., conducted the investigation. The U.S. Border Patrol, a division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the North Dakota Highway Patrol also assisted ICE with the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Chase, District of North Dakota, prosecuted the case.

According to court documents, Porcisanu and Stucco Design Inc. were able to undercut competitors' bids and win contracts to perform stucco-related construction work with general contractors by taking advantage of cheaper labor costs by using illegal alien employees.

"Bringing criminal charges against unscrupulous employers and targeting their illegal profits are tactics we are adopting nationwide," said Michael Mach, resident agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Grand Forks, N.D. "ICE has found criminal sanctions to be a very effective deterrent to illegal employment schemes."

"This was a significant case for us because it is important for us to deter and take away the economic incentive to hire illegal workers," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Chase. "In addition to the jail time, it was particularly important for us to forfeit over 95 percent of the funds that were in the corporate and personal bank accounts of the defendant."

ICE investigators found that Porcisanu arranged transportation for his illegal alien employees and paid for hotel rooms for these employees near construction sites in North Dakota, Indiana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. Porcisanu did not pay these employees overtime and did not withhold required state, federal or Social Security taxes.

In addition, to conceal his illegal scheme, Porcisanu refused to respond to - and instructed others to refuse to respond to - a subpoena issued by a federal grand jury for the District of North Dakota seeking to obtain information about the legal status of his employees.

The ICE investigation began after the North Dakota Highway Patrol stopped a truck for a traffic violation near Fargo on Oct. 26, 2005. Highway patrol officers contacted the U.S. Border Patrol in Grand Forks for assistance in identifying the four men in the truck. Border Patrol agents responded and arrested the men on charges of being in the United States illegally.

All four illegal aliens were employees of Stucco Design Inc., and had been working in Dickinson, N.D., at a construction site for a Wal-Mart Super Center. They told ICE agents that, when Stucco Design hired them, they did not complete the required paperwork and did not show any documents to establish they were eligible to work legally in the United States, as required by law. They also stated that their employers knew they were in the country illegally.

The sentencing is the latest development of recent criminal cases by ICE against businesses and business owners around the country in connection with illegal alien employment schemes.

On April 19, ICE agents arrested seven current and former managers of IFCO Systems North America Inc., pursuant to criminal complaints in the Northern District of New York charging them with harboring illegal aliens for financial gain. Two other IFCO employees were arrested for criminal document fraud violations. ICE agents also apprehended 1,187 of the firm's illegal alien employees during criminal search warrants and consent searches executed at more than 40 IFCO locations nationwide. The arrests were the result of a yearlong investigation of IFCO, which determined that more than half of IFCO's 5,800 employees during 2005 had invalid or mismatched Social Security numbers. If convicted, the current and former managers of IFCO each faces a potential 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each illegal alien hiring violation that took place. IFCO, the largest pallet services company in the United States, is based in Houston, Texas.

On April 14, two operators of Baltimore's best-known sushi restaurants agreed to forfeit to the government more than $1 million in assets. They also pleaded guilty to criminal charges of conspiracy to commit alien harboring and money laundering in connection with an illegal alien employment scheme. A third defendant pleaded guilty to employing illegal aliens. The ICE investigation found that the operators of the three Kawasaki restaurants in Baltimore exploited cheap, illegal labor to maximize profits to purchase new homes and luxury vehicles for themselves. Two of the defendants face sentences of up to 30 years in prison.

On April 11, a federal indictment was unsealed in the Northern District of Ohio charging two temporary employment agencies and nine individuals with hiring and harboring illegal aliens, mail and wire fraud, and laundering approximately $5.3 million. ICE agents arrested criminal suspects in Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. The indictment alleged that HV Connect Inc., and TN Job Service Inc. provided hundreds of illegal alien employees to unwitting companies in Ohio by falsely representing that they were legal. The indictment also alleged that the owners of these temporary employment agencies laundered roughly $5.3 million that they earned from this illegal employment scheme, and they used the proceeds to build a new home and purchase jewelry for themselves.

I am so glad to be hearing this. It is about time. I hope all criminal employers like these start worrying about their own situations and let these criminal invaders/job thieves go.

ICE did well to prosecute a business in the construction industry. Many small contractors playing by the rules have trouble bidding agianst companies large and small that hire illegal labor.

There is a lot of State support in Colorado's new laws to stop this. I hope Colorado (and other states) law enforcement and legislators will work closely with ICE on this. (207g)