Ohio Woman Gets 5 Years for Farm Worker Visa Scam

Sandra Lee Bart, 69, of Ohio, was sentenced to five years in federal prison for conspiring to exploit foreign farmworkers on H-2A visas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced today. Bart was convicted by a jury of orchestrating a scheme that forced workers from the Dominican Republic to pay illegal recruitment fees and wage kickbacks just to keep their seasonal jobs at a Minnesota vegetable farm.

Co-defendant Wilian Socrate Cabrera pleaded guilty on July 14, 2016, to conspiracy to commit fraud in foreign labor contracting. John James Svihel, who ran Svihel Vegetable Farm in Foley, Minn., pleaded guilty on June 16, 2016, to the same charge and agreed to pay more than $974,000 in restitution, unpaid wages, and forfeiture. The trio systematically violated federal rules meant to protect temporary agricultural workers.

From 2008 to May 2015, Bart and Cabrera operated an unregistered recruitment business called “Labor Listo,” preying on both desperate workers and farmers seeking seasonal labor. They lied to Svihel, claiming a church would cover airfare for the first year, then turned around and charged workers between $420 and $2,385 in recruitment fees—plus a $374 annual fee—splitting the profits. Workers were told they wouldn’t be rehired unless they paid up.

At season’s end, Svihel collected kickbacks equal to a percentage of each worker’s wages and demanded full reimbursement for return flights—costs explicitly prohibited under H-2A rules. Over three seasons, Svihel pocketed over $200,000, using the money for personal travel and leisure. A 2008 Labor Listo meeting document bluntly stated: “Costs – pass on to applicant.”

When investigators began looking into conditions at Svihel Farm, Bart moved to cover her tracks. She directed Cabrera to pressure workers into signing false statements retracting claims made to the Department of Labor. Bart and Svihel shared a list of workers, marking them “G” for good or “B” for bad—those labeled “B” were sent home early in 2014 and blacklisted in 2015.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, Office of the Inspector General, and the Homeland Security Investigations Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force. Prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Manda Sertich and David Maria, it underscores a pattern of exploitation hidden behind legal visa channels. “This shows the positive outcome when federal agencies work together to stop criminals from exploiting U.S. visas,” said Diplomatic Security Service’s Minneapolis Resident Agent-In-Charge Daniel Bleakmore.

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