sun-sentinel.com
He and five others were indicted in plan to traffic immigrants
A Polish man, one of six accused of luring hundreds of undocumented Eastern European workers to South Florida and hiring them out to U.S. companies, pleaded guilty Monday to financial crimes.
Speaking through an interpreter at a federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Pavel Preus, 38, entered a guilty plea to charges of money laundering, tax conspiracy and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
Preus was indicted in April, along with five others accused of running employee-leasing companies in Broward County that brought illegal workers to the United States and then distributed them out to agriculture and dairy companies throughout the country, including Perdue Farms Inc.
Those employee-leasing companies allegedly failed to pay more than $5.7 million in payroll taxes. The companies paid workers about $20 million over a decade and brought more than 550 immigrants into the United States on tourist visas, according to court documents.
Posted by Richard at September 13, 2005