A man has pled guilty to helping operate a nearly $8 million fraud scheme that worked to place illegal aliens in Key West, Florida hospitality jobs.
Oleksandr Morgunov, a former Key West resident, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor aliens and induce them to remain in the United States, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.
According to investigators, the scheme spanned a number of staffing companies where from January 2016 to at least January 2021, Morgunov helped operate Paradise Choice LLC, Paradise Choice Cleaning LLC, Tropical City Services LLC, and Tropical City Group LLC — all of which placed illegal aliens in hotel, bar, and restaurant jobs in Key West.
Morgunov admitted in his guilty plea that he and other colleagues paid illegal aliens without reporting their wages to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), defrauding the federal government of about $7.9 million in taxes.
One of Morgunov’s colleagues, Mykhaylo Chugay, was convicted and sentenced in August for his role in aiding the staffing companies responsible for placing illegal aliens in jobs and withholding taxes from the IRS. Chugay was given more than 24 months in prison.
Likewise, Volodymyr Ogorodnychuk pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme and was sentenced to four years in prison and three years of supervised release. Morgunov, set to be sentenced in January 2023, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
The convictions come as few employers face penalties for hiring illegal aliens even as an estimated 800,000 illegal aliens hold U.S. jobs today. From April 2018 to May 2019, for example, just 11 employers and no companies were prosecuted for hiring illegal aliens.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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