September 5, 2012
LOS ANGELES – Federal
criminal charges have been filed against a Van Nuys manufacturing
company and one of its owners for hiring unauthorized alien workers and
repeatedly taking steps to cover up the illegal hiring in an effort to
retain the workers.
Yoel A. Wazana, 38, owner and
production manager of Wazana Brothers International, Inc., which does
business under the name Micro Solutions Enterprises (MSE), is scheduled
to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States
District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
In a plea agreement filed this
afternoon in United States District Court, Wazana agreed to plead
guilty to one felony count of false representation of a Social Security
number. Wazana admits in the plea agreement that he caused two
employees to use the Social Security numbers of relatives in order to
remain in the firm’s employ after U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) had begun an
investigation of the company’s compliance with federal hiring laws.
Wazana Brothers International has
agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of continuing
employment of unauthorized aliens. In a plea agreement filed last
month, the firm admits hiring approximately 55 unauthorized workers, and
then continuing to employ them after the ICE inspection had begun. The
company admits that it knew or deliberately avoided knowledge of the
fact that the individuals were not authorized to work in the United
States.
The company’s plea agreement
represents a global settlement of criminal and civil charges against
the firm. Under the terms of the plea agreement negotiated by ICE and
the United States Attorney’s Office, Wazana Brothers International
agreed to pay approximately $267,000 in civil and criminal fines.
Beyond the monetary sanctions, the
plea agreement calls for the company to be on probation for three
years, during which time it will implement a series of stringent
measures to ensure it is complying with the nation’s hiring laws. Those
steps include retaining an independent compliance monitor to oversee
the completion and maintenance of the firm’s hiring records, and
providing training to employees regarding federal hiring laws. The plea
agreement takes into account the company’s willingness to take
responsibility for its prior criminal conduct and to implement a
rigorous program to ensure full compliance with federal hiring laws in
the future.
“ICE is committed to holding
businesses accountable when they knowingly hire or retain illegal
workers,” said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of HSI Los
Angeles. “Employers who willfully violate our nation’s hiring laws gain
an unfair economic advantage over their law abiding competitors. Our
goal is to protect job opportunities for the nation’s legal workers and
level the playing field for those businesses that play by the rules.”
The charges against Wazana and his
company are the result of an investigation into MSE’s hiring practices
that was initiated by ICE in 2007. According to court documents,
shortly after MSE received notification in April 2007 that ICE planned
to audit the company’s payroll and hiring records, Wazana directed that
about 80 of MSE’s most experienced employees – at least 53 of whom did
not have work authorization – be relocated to another manufacturing
facility. When investigators requested hiring records from Wazana
Brothers International on three separate occasions, the company failed
to provide paperwork for those unauthorized workers. The plea
agreements filed in this case also describe how, after learning of the
ICE audit, Wazana conducted meetings with MSE’s assembly line workers,
instructing them to obtain valid work authorization documents and
return with those documents, suggesting that he did not care if the
documents were actually theirs.
In February 2008, federal authorities
executed a search warrant at MSE’s Van Nuys plant. During the
enforcement operation, agents arrested eight current and former company
workers on criminal charges and another 130 employees on
administrative immigration violations.
The felony charge of false
representation of a Social Security number carries a maximum penalty of
five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Release No. 12-119
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