Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts in Houston, Texas

May 9, 2007

GRAND JURY INDICTS LABOR LEASE COMPANIES AND EMPLOYEES FOR HIRING ILLEGAL ALIENS AT AMFELS SHIPYARD

(BROWNSVILLE, TX) Two area labor lease companies and two former employees have been indicted for hiring illegal aliens to work at the Keppel AmFELS shipyard as the result of a Department of Defense investigation, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.

CPEP, Inc. and LAMC, Inc., both doing business as Port Fabricators, Rolando Villanueva, 31, and Ernesto Casas, 33, both of Brownsville, TX, have been charged in a 15-count indictment with conspiracy and multiple counts of hiring illegal aliens and document fraud. The indictment was returned under seal on Tuesday, May 1, 2007, by a Brownsville grand jury, and unsealed today, following the service of summonses upon the corporations. Villanueva turned himself in on Monday and was released on a $30,000 bond. Casas was arrested today, and will appear before a United States Magistrate Judge tomorrow. A representative of CPEP, Inc. and LAMC, Inc., Texas corporations which operate simultaneously and do business as Port Fabricators, did appear before a United States Magistrate Judge today. Villanueva and Casas are expected to appear before a United States Magistrate Judge Thursday for arraignment.

CPEP, Inc. and LAMC, Inc., doing business as Port Fabricators, held labor lease contracts with Keppel AmFELS (“AmFELS”). Villanueva and Casas, former personnel employees of Port Fabricators, were responsible for recruiting and hiring skilled and unskilled employees for these labor lease contracts. All defendants are accused of conspiring to encourage and induce aliens to come to, enter or reside in the United States, knowing the aliens had entered or resided in violation of law; to knowingly hiring for employment ten or more persons within a year knowing the persons were aliens unauthorized to work in the United States; to knowingly completing or causing others to complete Employment Eligibility Verification forms (Form I-9s) using false, fraudulent, or fictitious resident alien cards or Social Security cards; and knowingly accepting or causing others to accept false, fraudulent, and fictitious resident alien cards and Social Security numbers knowing them to have been forged, counterfeited, altered or falsely made or to have been procured unlawfully.

According to allegations in the indictment, Keppel AmFELS (“AmFELS”) is a shipyard located within the Free Trade zone of the Port of Brownsville, TX, which constructs, refurbishes and repairs a complete range of mobile offshore drilling rigs and platforms. Between January 2002 and September 2004, AmFELS entered into multi million dollar labor lease contracts with Port Fabricators to recruit and hire employees to fill skilled and unskilled position on a number of government contracts awarded to AmFELS during that time period. In October 2003, AmFELS was awarded one such contract, named SBX, by the Department of Defense to refit a large semi-submersible seagoing oil platform. AmFELS had contracted with the defendant companies among others, to meet its demand for 1,000 - 1,200 employees to perform the contract.

As human resource employees of the labor lease companies, Villanueva and Casas were responsible for verifying that each applicant for employment at AmFELS was legally authorized to work in the United States. The indictment alleges that for a fee and for the benefit of the two defendant labor lease companies, Villanueva and Casas knowingly hired, recruited and referred aliens not authorized for employment in the United States, and continued to employ aliens no longer authorized for employment by means of selling or transferring fraudulent identification documents to the alien, or encouraging and instructing aliens to change their name or appearance, and apply to continue to work at AmFELS.

The three-year investigation leading to this indictment was initiated in September 2004 with a comprehensive sweep of the day shift employees working on the SBX project for possible document fraud in September 2004 by special agents of the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) with the assistance of the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Texas Department of Public Safety and Customs and Border Protection. That sweep resulted in the identification of 41 illegal aliens working on the SBX platform. Of the forty-one, twenty-three were employed through the labor lease contracts with Port Fabricators.

If convicted, Villanueva and Casas face a maximum of ten years imprisonment for each count of transferring or accepting a fraudulent document. Each count of conspiracy or hiring illegal aliens carries a five-year maximum sentence. Additionally, each count of aggravated identity theft mandates a two-year sentence consecutive to any other sentence. The labor lease defendants face fines of $500,000 for each count of conviction.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.

 

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