Mykhaylo Chugay, Tax, Immigration, and Money Laundering, Florida 2024

A Key West labor staffing company owner has been sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for tax, immigration, and money laundering crimes.

Mykhaylo Chugay, a partner in several labor-staffing companies, including General Labor Solutions LLC, Liberty Specialty Service LLC, Paradise Choice LLC, Paradise Choice Cleaning LLC, Tropical City Services LLC, and Tropical City Group LLC, was sentenced to 24 years and 3 months in prison for his crimes.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Chugay and his co-conspirators owned and operated the staffing companies in southern Florida between August 2007 and July 2021. Through these companies, Chugay facilitated the employment of individuals in hotels, bars, and restaurants in Key West and other locations, even though the employees were not authorized to work in the United States.

Chugay and his co-conspirators also defrauded the IRS out of more than $25 million in income and Social Security and Medicare taxes that should have been collected and paid over in connection with the employment of these workers. Chugay conspired with others to encourage some workers to enter the United States and remain in the country, in violation of immigration laws.

Chugay and others sent checks and wires totaling more than $11 million in proceeds from the illegal scheme to conspirators in Ukraine and elsewhere.

U.S. District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez for the Southern District of Florida ordered Chugay to serve three years of supervised release. Judge Martinez will enter a forfeiture money judgement and order Chugay to pay at a later date.

Chugay’s crimes were investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, the IRS-Criminal Investigation, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations. Senior Litigation Counsel Sean Beaty, Trial Attorneys Jessica A. Kraft and Nicholas J. Schilling Jr., and Paralegal Robert Resto of the Tax Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Clark for the Southern District of Florida, prosecuted the case.

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