By: Bruce Buchanan, Sebelist Buchanan Law

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Georgia has indicted two businesses Regal Hospitality Solutions, LLC (RHS) and Educational World, Inc. (Ed World), and nine of their officers and managers for their roles in an alleged conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and commit various fraud and criminal immigration offenses for profit.

The officers and managers of RHS, Karen Makaryan, Sargis Makaryan, Samvel Nikoghosyan, Artur Grigoryan, Armen Ayrapetyan, Jason Hill, and Fremie Balbastro, and officers and managers of Ed World, Larisa Khariton, and Jon Clark, were each charged with conspiracy to defraud and commit offenses against the United States, including encouraging and inducing an alien to reside in the United States, alien harboring, transporting aliens, and visa fraud. Additionally, RHS and its seven individual defendants were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 10 counts of wire fraud.

According to the indictment, from an unknown date through at least May 2017, the individual defendants enriched themselves by participating in a scheme to recruit and hire noncitizen laborers without authorization to work for defendant RHS. According to the indictment, RHS entered into contracts to provide hospitality-related businesses with lawful laborers to work in housekeeping, retail, and food service positions. To fill those positions, the defendants hired noncitizens who were not authorized to work for RHS in the United States. In some cases, the RHS defendants arranged for and provided housing and transportation to the workers.

The defendants and other co-conspirators also allegedly encouraged and induced noncitizen laborers on expiring and expired J-1 exchange visitor visas to obtain B-2 tourist visas and to work in the United States for RHS, knowing that employing such laborers on B-2 visas was illegal. Ed World, a visa preparation company, and the Ed World defendants, after charging noncitizen laborers approximately $650 per application, prepared, and submitted applications for B-2 visas on behalf of the workers, which contained false and misleading statements designed to indicate that the noncitizens intended to obtain the B-2 visa for the purpose of engaging in tourism and that the noncitizens were complying with United States immigration laws. In fact, the Ed World defendants knew those noncitizens were already present in and intended to stay in the United States for employment, not tourism.

The indictment further alleges the Ed World defendants submitted petitions for H-2B temporary work visas that contained false and misleading information about the location where noncitizen laborers allegedly were to be employed. RHS paid a commission to Ed World for noncitizens that Ed World recruited to work for RHS, including those who were not authorized to work for RHS in the United States.

According to the indictment, RHS and the RHS defendants also made false and misleading representations that RHS would staff positions at the hospitality establishments contracting with RHS only with laborers who were legally authorized to work for RHS in the United States.

If convicted, the individual defendants face maximum potential statutory penalties of five years in prison on the count of conspiracy to defraud and commit offenses against the United States; 10 years in prison on the counts of encouraging and inducing an alien to reside in the United States, alien harboring, and transportation of aliens; and 20 years in prison on the counts of wire fraud conspiracy and substantive wire fraud. The corporate defendants are subject to a maximum fine on each count of conviction of $500,000 or twice the gross amount of gain or loss resulting from the offense.

If you want to know more information on issues related to employers complying with immigration laws, I recommend you read The I-9 and E-Verify Handbook, a book I co-authored with Greg Siskind, and available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0997083379.