Houston businessman sentenced in H2-B foreign worker visa scam

The United States Attorney's office in the Southern District of Texas announced on Wednesday that a Houston businessman was sentenced in federal court on six counts of making false statements and false representations made on government forms to procure foreign workers under the H2-B visa program they did not need.

According to the press release a 45 -year old Houston man named Marco Pesquera pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud Jan. 3, 2019 and on September 4 was sentenced  to 38 months in prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. He was further ordered to forfeit $5 million in a money judgment and his Houston residence.

Three other individuals; Norma Linda Vega, 46 of Houston, Saul Atkinson, 47, of Brownsville, and Gwendolyn Saldivar, 41, of Snellville, Georgia were also charged and have pleaded guilty.

At the time of plea, Pesquera admitted that from approximately 2011 to January of 2018, he and his co-conspirators utilized legitimate and fictitious companies to petition for H-2B visas. Pesquera recruited and paid individuals to petition for visa workers they did not need and then utilized the foreign workers to fulfill labor contracts. 

“Pesquera and his co-conspirators defrauded the DOL’s H-2B program by filing false documentation to obtain visas for more than 1000 foreign workers to work in the U.S illegally,” said Grell. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to vigorously pursue those who defraud worker visa programs for their own personal gain.”

Pesquera’s business, Pangea Enterprises Inc., contracted with large industries to provide labor and profited by paying foreign workers an hourly wage well below the contract rate.

Pesquera and his co-defendants utilized false documents that included contracts, tax forms, web sites and fictitious phone numbers and business addresses to facilitate the fraud. 

Pesquera also admitted to obstructing the investigation by creating false documents in response to a federal subpoena.

These sentences come a few weeks after the U.S. Department of Labor announced a California -based employer and their H-2B visa agent in Texas paid back wages stemming from violations of the H2-B visa program and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

H2-B visa, minimum wage violations found by U.S. Department of Labor

Subsequent to a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, a California -based employer and their H-2B visa agent in Texas paid back wages stemming from violations of the H2-B visa program and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

BLUFFTON, SC – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Montage Hotels & Resorts LLC – operating as Montage Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, South Carolina – has paid $8,301 in wages to an employee for violating labor provisions of the H-2B visa program. The Laguna Beach, California-based employer also paid a civil penalty of $8,301 assessed by WHD for the violation.

WHD determined the employer failed to meet a condition of their contract for participating in the visa program when they failed to hire a qualified U.S. worker who had applied for a job as a cook at the resort. As a result of the investigation, Montage Hotels & Resorts hired the employee and paid her wages she would have earned from the start of the employer’s H-2B contract.

In addition, WHD found the employer’s H-2B agent – Frisco, Texas-based Practical Employee Solutions – unlawfully charged visa fees to the non-immigrant guest employees. This practice resulted in minimum wage violations of the FLSA when the charged fees resulted in the employees’ rates of pay falling below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Montage Hotels & Resorts paid 15 employees $1,233 in wages to remedy those violations. The employer also violated the recordkeeping requirements of the FLSA when payroll records did not reflect the agent’s fees as pay deductions.

Read the full DOL news release here.