The owner of a contractor in West Virginia has been charged with harbouring undocumented workers. If convicted, he faces a lengthy sentence in federal prison.
Hetzon Marroquin Reyes, the owner A&M Home, based in the city of Morgantown, was arrested after an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Social Security Administration Office.
According to the indictment, Reyes hired and harboured individuals who were unlawfully in the US to work for his company.
It’s alleged that he used other people’s social security numbers to create tax documents for them.
Prosecutors also say he created false driver’s licences and immigration forms for the West Virginia Division of Labour.
Reyes is charged with one count of conspiracy to harbour aliens for commercial advantage and private financial gain, 32 counts of false representations regarding social security numbers, one count of corrupt interference with due administration of a tax code, and one count of fraud related to visas and other documents.
The maximum penalties for the charges are 10 years in federal prison for each of the conspiracy and fraud counts.
He also faces up to five years for each of the false representations counts and up to three years for the corrupt interference count.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and each defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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