SANDRA LEE BART, Exploiting Foreign Workers, Minnesota 2016

An Ohio woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to exploit foreign workers at a Minnesota farm.

Sandra Lee Bart, 69, was found guilty by a jury of conspiring with others to commit fraud. She operated an unregistered business called ‘Labor Listo’ with co-defendant Wilian Socrates Cabrera.

The pair used the business to recruit employers to hire seasonal workers from the Dominican Republic on temporary work visas. They charged the workers a one-time recruitment fee of between $420 and $2,385, as well as an annual fee of $374. The workers were told that if they didn’t pay the fees they would not be allowed to return for the following growing season.

The workers were also forced to pay a percentage of their wages to their employer, Svihel Vegetable Farm in Foley, Minnesota. Bart and Cabrera split the fees with Svihel, who ran the farm. The total amount of kickbacks taken by Svihel was over $200,000.

The investigation into Labor Listo was conducted by the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General, and the Homeland Security Investigations Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force.

Bart’s co-defendants, Wilian Socrates Cabrera and John James Svihel, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud in foreign labor contracting. Cabrera pleaded guilty on July 14, 2016, and Svihel pleaded guilty on June 16, 2016. Svihel agreed to pay over $974,000 in restitution, unpaid wages, and a forfeiture money judgment.

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