Feds allege ring supplied illegal labor to hotels, restaurants

NORFOLK

An elaborate illegal-immigrant network took in more than $11 million and supplied hundreds of workers to hotels and other businesses throughout Hampton Roads and seven states, according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Twenty-two suspects were charged in a case that the U.S. attorney's office called "massive immigration fraud."

The ring used bribery, phony marriages and bogus political asylum applications to keep it operating for eight years, according to the 74-count indictment.

The investigation, conducted by nine federal agencies and Virginia Beach police, is part of a broad effort to root out illegal workers and those who profit from them. The case unfolded during an investigation into widespread marriage fraud involving illegal immigrants and Navy personnel.

"This is a very sophisticated investigation that was done," U.S. Magistrate Judge James E. Bradberry said in court Tuesday during the initial appearances of many of the defendants.

Most of the 22 suspects were arrested and brought into U.S. District Court on Tuesday. They were jailed pending bond hearings Friday. Most are foreign nationals, but several U.S.-born citizens are charged as well.

Suspected leaders of the ring profited largely by applying for work visas using inflated numbers of workers needed and then routing those workers to unauthorized work sites, the indictment said.

The workers were brought in from Eastern Europe, Asia and Jamaica.

For example, one of the 10 companies, or vendors, named in the indictment brought in 158 foreign workers using a visa application that stated they were to be employed at the Doubletree Hotel in Virginia Beach.

When the workers arrived, they were diverted to housekeeping jobs in Florida and Tennessee or to fast-food jobs in Louisiana and Alabama, the indictment said.

Hotels and restaurants that used the workers generally hired them through vendors, including the 10 companies named in the indictment. That way, it was up to the vendors - not the hotels and restaurants - to verify citizenship.

The indictment indicates that certain unidentified employees of The Westin Virginia Beach Town Center hotel, the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel and an unidentified Marriott hotel were bribed to inflate the number of workers needed.

Two suspects bribed a Westin employee at 10 cents per hour for every one of their workers hired, the indictment said.

A similar bribe was made to a Sheraton employee, the indictment said. Managers of The Westin and the Sheraton did not respond to phone messages seeking comment Tuesday.

The workers were paid poorly and had rent, rental deposits and "taxes" deducted from their paychecks. In one example given in the indictment, a Jamaican woman worked 66 hours and received a check for $20 after her rent, deposit and taxes were deducted.

According to the indictment, 798 workers brought into the country by the ring leaders between 2005 and 2007 never had taxes deducted from their pay.

Workers also sometimes lived in substandard housing, according to the indictment. One place was infested with roaches, it said; a worker living in another house was injured when a bunk bed collapsed on her. The upper bunk, the indictment said, was being held up with plastic twist ties.

The suspected leaders, however, lived well, the indictment said.

One woman was driving a BMW, according to the document; another bought a hot tub for his home. Viktar Krus, a 28-year-old suspected ring leader, bought a house in Virginia Beach for about $243,000, the indictment said. He also wired $245,000 to his native Belarus last April, it said.

Federal agents used unidentified informants, unindicted co-conspirators and wiretaps to build their case.

"We have oodles of people," one suspect is overheard saying in a phone conversation, according to the indictment.

But when the economy started to falter, the work began to dry up. Many employees began complaining that they couldn't survive on their salaries, the indictment said. Some hadn't worked for months.

And the competition among vendors was fierce. Two suspects in charge of supplying labor had to reduce their hourly rate to compete with illegal Mexican laborers, the indictment says.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. attorney's office did not respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com