ky3.com
SPRINGFIELD, Missouri -- The owner of a construction company in Ozark faces up to a 30-year prison sentence and/or a fine up to $1.5 million for harboring illegal immigrants. Santiago Lopez-Gomez, a citizen of Mexico who lives in Springfield, pleaded guilty on Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate James England.
The U.S. attorney’s office says Lopez-Gomez is himself an illegal immigrant. Prosecutors say he admitted he hired six illegal immigrants from Mexico to work for his company, S.L. Primo’s Exteriors. The office said in a news release that Lopez-Gomez rented three homes in the Freemont Hills Town Home Community in Ozark to house his workers. Ozark police officers arrested him and four of his workers on Feb. 27 during an investigation of a traffic accident.
Prosecutors say, by pleading guilty, Lopez-Gomez also agreed to forfeit to the government all of the funds in his business bank account at Bank of America, which total $73,247. They say Lopez-Gomez admitted all of the funds deposited into the bank account were obtained through his business using illegal workers.
A judge will sentence Lopez-Gomez after a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.
Posted by tyne at May 16, 2007