At the beginning of the year, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security vowed to crack down on employers who hired illegals. In one of the first case following the vow, the feds made good on the threat: 10 years in prison for an owner who flouted the law.
Richard Rosenbaum pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S. and harboring illegal aliens, who were hired at his maintenance-services company.
A federal investigation in Michigan had revealed that Rosenbaum’s company had hired hundreds of illegal aliens and paid them in cash – thereby avoiding paying the government employment taxes, Social Security and Medicare. According to the feds, the company had cheated the IRS out of more than $16 million.
Rosenbaum appealed the stiff sentence, citing his lack of a prior criminal record and his cooperation in the government’s investigation.
But the judge was unmoved. Rosenbaum’s cooperation wasn’t all that substantial, the court said, and it didn’t begin until a co-defendant turned informant. The sentence was within federal guidelines, the judge added.
Cite: U.S. v. Rosenbaum
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