Janitor service owners charged after raids
WASHINGTON – Three top executives of a janitorial service used by national restaurant chains such as Hard Rock Cafe and ESPN Zone face charges of tax evasion, fraud and harboring illegal immigrants, U.S. officials announced Thursday, after overnight raids in 18 states netted about 200 undocumented workers.
Authorities unsealed a 23-count indictment returned Feb. 15 by a grand jury in Grand Rapids, Mich., against co-owners Richard M. Rosenbaum, 60, and Edward Scott Cunningham, 43, and controller Christina A. Flocken, 59, of Rosenbaum-Cunningham International Inc., of Palm Beach, Fla.
The trio allegedly failed to pay $18.6 million in federal employment taxes on $54 million in custodial and grounds-keeping contracts between 2001 and 2005 at the chains, including the House of Blues, Planet Hollywood, Dave and Busters, Yard House and China Grill, U.S. officials said. Parent companies of the restaurants were not charged.
Raids targeted 63 locations in 17 states and Washington, D.C., from California to Florida to New York, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said. Illegal workers face administrative charges and deportation.
The case marked the latest wrinkle in a renewed campaign by the Bush administration to crack down on employers as Congress debates an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws. ICE arrested 716 individuals on criminal charges last year, up from a few dozen in recent years.
Although the government lost a criminal case against Tyson Foods employees in 2003, ended a criminal investigation against Wal-Mart Inc. in 2005 after negotiating an $11 million civil fine, and charged workers but not managers in raids against meatpacker Swift & Co. last year, it continued to target smaller companies with criminal investigations. Subjects included a California fence-building company, a Kentucky home-building firm, a Texas-based transportation pallet firm and a temporary labor service in Ohio.
Commercial cleaning services are a $100 billion U.S. industry employing hundreds of thousands of workers across the private sector. According to prosecutors, RCI supervisors and about 155 on-site managers allegedly hired hundreds of workers since 1997 without job applications, W-4 tax withholding or I-9 employment eligibility forms, or W-2 wage and tax statements. The company recruited through word of mouth and ads at job fairs, festivals and Spanish-language newspapers. In one case, an employee allegedly bought 20 phony green cards.
The trio allegedly paid workers in cash and set up shell companies, with names such as Ricurt Inc., Monker and Sunchaser Service Corp., to hide assets from the Internal Revenue Service, the indictment said. Dividing nearly $7 million, defendants allegedly purchased “racehorses, fancy boats and lavish homes” in Florida and California, said Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Julie Myers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Frank said Rosenbaum has been arrested in central Florida. Cunningham and Flocken are expected to surrender to officials soon, an ICE spokesman said.