What employment law violations got this owner 3 years in jail?
Meet Miguel Castro, 44, of Uniontown, OH. He was just sentenced to 33 months in prison after being found guilty of charges resulting from investigations by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor.
Castro was sentenced for “his role in a conspiracy to hire undocumented workers,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cleveland.
He was also charged with:
- failing to pay workers at least the minimum wage
- conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and
- mail fraud.
Castro was the majority owner of a chain of seven Mexican restaurants in Ohio called “Mariachi Locos” and “Mariachi Cocos.”
In addition to his prison sentence, Castro was also ordered to forfeit $100,000 and pay $7,792 in restitution.
The attorney’s office said Castro, along with his wife Monica (a partial owner of the restaurants), hired undocumented workers who were illegally present in the U.S. and tried to shield them from discovery by:
- paying them in cash
- excluding them from the restaurants’ payrolls
- leasing housing for them, and
- aiding them in obtaining fraudulent work documentation.
In some cases, Castro and his wife only paid the workers in tips, according to the attorney’s office. They also were found guilty of submitting false wage reports to the state of Ohio.
For her role in the actions, Castro’s wife was sentenced to three months in prison and five months of home detention.
According to Cleveland.com, U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi, who levied the sentences against the Castros, said that someone needed to care for the couples’ children, two of whom are under 18. As a result, Lioi ordered that the Castros serve their prison sentences one after the other.
The new releases from the attorney’s office went on to say:
The defendants’ employment practices enabled them to enrich themselves because they paid the undocumented workers less than minimum wage and did not pay these workers for overtime hours worked. In some cases, the defendants paid these workers only the tips that the workers received from their customers, according to court documents.
Both Castros will be on supervised release for three years following their prison sentences.
All but one of their restaurants are now closed, according to Cleveland.com.
