Hospitality Industry Legal Risks: Kansas Hotel Owners Indicted For Hiring "Undocumented Workers And Paying Them In Cash"; Government Seeks "Forfeiture Of Properties"

“…the (hotel owners) are charged with one count of conspiracy to harbor  undocumented workers for personal gain, five counts of harboring  undocumented workers for personal gain and four counts of wire fraud…The government is seeking to forfeit the proceeds of the crimes, including the two hotels the couple own. The government would seize the properties and then sell them, gaining money for taxpayers. The couple failed to pay the government the payroll taxes that they should have…”

The owners of two Kansas City-area Clarion hotels have been indicted on charges of knowingly hiring undocumented workers who were paid less than other employees. Munir Ahmad Chaudary, 51, and his wife, Rhonda R. Bridge, 40, both of Overland Park, own the Clarion Hotel at 7000 W. 108th St. in Overland Park and the Clarion Hotel at 11828 NW Plaza Circle near the Kansas City International Airport.

Both pleaded not guilty on Tuesday. U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said the grand jury’s indictment alleges Chaudary and Bridge knew they were hiring undocumented workers to serve as housekeepers. This gave them a competitive advantage over law-abiding hotel owners, Grissom said.

“They paid the undocumented workers less and they paid them in cash. Their economic motive was to cut their costs and to get an advantage on other hotels that abided by the law,” Grissom said.

“This prosecution is aimed at unscrupulous employers who are a driving force behind illegal immigration,” Grissom said. “We’re going to go after people who are hiring them.”

The indictment alleges that in December 2011 investigators from DHS Homeland Security Investigations and the Kansas Department of Revenue received information that the two hotels were employing undocumented workers.

Investigators interviewed hotel employees and found out that most of them were illegally in the United States.

In June 2012, an undercover agent took a job as a housekeeper at the Clarion hotel in Overland Park, Grissom said.

The agent made it clear to Chaudary and Bridge when he was hired that he was unlawfully in the United States and had no documents allowing him to be employed, according to the indictment.

For more: http://www.kctv5.com/story/19512719/us-attorney-barry-grissom-holds-news-conference

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