PRESS RELEASE
July 21, 2008
Covington, Ky. —A commercial interior contracting company in Kenton County and its president were sentenced late yesterday to two years probation and eight months in prison respectively, for harboring illegal aliens for a commercial and financial advantage. The two were also ordered to pay a combined $2 million, $500,000 of which was paid today.
In November of 2007, Spectrum Interiors and its president, 49-year-old Jeffery Wolnitzek of Ft. Wright, Ky. admitted that they knowingly conspired to utilize labor contracting companies owned by Louis Garcia and others that provided illegal aliens to perform dry wall and exterior applications on many of Spectrum’s job site duties.
“The sentences imposed by the Court today reflect the serious nature of this crime, and should serve as a wake-up call to any Kentucky employer utilizing illegal aliens in their work force,” said Robert McBride, who represented the United States in the case. “As this case shows, violating the law banning the employment of illegal aliens may lead to punishment of not just the company, but also its officers.”
In November of 2005, Garcia pleaded guilty in federal court in Ohio to tax evasion and agreed to cooperate with ICE’s investigation of Spectrum Interiors before being deported back to Mexico. Garcia met with Wolnitzek and Spectrum’s chief financial officer in a recorded meeting in May of 2006 where he advised them that half of the workers he provided to Spectrum were undocumented aliens. Despite that revelation, Wolnitzek and the financial officer agreed to continue to utilize Garcia’s laborers on job site projects and planned to hire them with legal U.S. status. Wolnitzek also tried to convince Garcia to allow one of his relatives to assume his operations after his deportation so that Spectrum could still use the illegal aliens on its projects. In November of 2006, ICE conducted a work site enforcement action at various Spectrum job sites in Kenton and Boone counties and arrested 19 undocumented alien laborers.
“ICE aggressively targets egregious employers like Mr. Wolnitzek who knowingly and recklessly employ an illegal alien workforce," said Paul Chambers, resident agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Ft. Mitchell. "We will continue to use all our investigative tools to pursue employers who take advantage of illegal labor to make an unlawful profit.”
James A. Zerhusen, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Paul Chambers, Special Agent in Charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement jointly made the announcement after the sentencings.