Palm Beach contractors plead guilty to hiring illegals

By Palm Beach Business.com

WEST PALM BEACH — Two Palm Beach County contractors face a maximum of five years in prison after pleading guilty to hiring illegal aliens and related tax fraud charges, the U.S. attorney’s office has announced.

John M. David and Juan A. Gonzalez, according to court documents, hired undocumented Mexican and Honduran workers in order to meet demand for their business, Sun Deck Concrete of Palm Beach County. David, president of the company, and Gonzalez, a supervisor, used the illegals to avoid nearly $500,000 in payroll taxes and workers comp premiums.

To hide the scheme, the two set up a series of shell companies through which the workers would be paid. To make the shell companies appear legitimate, the two opened corporate bank accounts, obtained federal tax identification numbers, and bought fraudulent workers’ comp insurance policies.

According to court documents, between 2005 and 2006, Gonzalez and other Sun Deck supervisors recruited more than twenty illegal aliens to work at Sun Deck work sites.
At the end of each week, Gonzalez and other Sun Deck supervisors calculated the wages due each worker and reported the sum to David, who in turn would issue checks payable to the shell companies to cover the wages, kickbacks to the co-conspirators and supervisors and fees to check cashing stores.

Between during 2005 and 2006, Sun Deck to paid more than $2 million in cash wages through the shell companies but avoided paying $316,255 in employment taxes and $163,652 in workers’ compensation premiums.

Beside the prison time, David and Gonzalez each face three years’ supervised release, fines and restitution.

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