HOUSTON – In a shocking case of corporate malfeasance, Waste Management Texas has been forced to forfeit $5.5 million after it was discovered that the company had hired illegal aliens at its Houston location, announced U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick along with Special Agent in Charge Mark Dawson of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Waste Management Inc., North America’s leading provider of waste disposal and collection headquartered in Houston, employed at least three managers at its Afton location who actively encouraged and induced aliens to work illegally between 2003 and April 2012. The company served nearly 20 million municipal, commercial, industrial and residential customers during this time.
A five-year HSI investigation resulted in the execution of search warrants in April 2012, where authorities discovered 16 illegal aliens at the Afton location with at least 100 employees in company records verified as fraudulently documented or using an identity that did not belong to them.
The non-prosecution agreement requires Waste Management to continue its substantial remedial measures to address all past immigration violations and forfeit more than $5.5 million in proceeds gained from hiring an illegal workforce at the Afton location, said Patrick. The company hired various staffing agencies to provide contract laborers, many of whom were hired or rehired at the Afton location in reckless disregard of the fact that they were not authorized to work.
Managers at the Afton location fired at least 10 employees in January 2012 because they lacked documentation. The aliens were told to assume the identity of actual U.S. citizens or individuals with legal status in order to work there. Managers also engaged in an identity theft scheme providing the terminated aliens with names and identifiers of actual individuals with status in the United States to allow the illegal aliens to be employed and added to the company’s payroll.
A federal grand jury indicted three managers in May 2014 for engaging in a conspiracy between 2008 and 2012 to induce and encourage unlawful immigration through a scheme to employ undocumented aliens as helpers on waste trucks picking up garbage in and around Houston. All three managers were convicted and received sentences ranging from 27 to 94 months.
Waste Management of Texas cooperated with the government’s criminal investigation and conducted their own internal investigation. They determined the managers at their Afton location intentionally thwarted pre-existing immigration compliance procedures that have since been enhanced to prevent future hiring of unauthorized aliens seeking employment by fraud or identity theft.
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: White Collar Crime|Human Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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