Wed, March 10th, 2010 - 5:24 am - By Gordon Basichis
We have been warning employers about hiring undocumented workers for a couple of years now. Hiring workers you may suspect as being illegal or undocumented, choose your own preferential language, can lead expensive fines, business shutdowns and public embarrassment. There are more than a few examples out there.
I have blogged about this before. For one such blog, see Arizona Sues First Employer for Hiring Undocumented Workers.
But here is a case where the employer was just sentenced to ten years imprisonment for hiring illegal workers. Ten years. You may think of it as justice, you may think of it as unfair. But the main thing to think about is that it doesn’t happen to you. According to BusinessBrief.com, , a federal appeals court has affirmed the sentencing of Richard Rosenbaum to ten years in jail. Rosenbaum was convicted of knowingly hiring undocumented workers and in the course of doing so, he defrauded the government by not paying his Social Security benefits and Medicare benefits. The feds claim that Rosenbaum and his company cheated the IRS out of $16million.
Look, this is a lousy economy and there are plenty of documented workers out there who are in need of a job. Maybe they weren’t willing to work for less wages or to perform menial work before. But with this economic meltdown, my how things have changed. People are without jobs and need to find something.
If you, the employer, thinks you are getting away cheap by hiring undocumented workers, think again. Massive fines, business closures. And a prison sentence. Realize the IRs is now getting into the act, as they are cracking down on those who defy the law and try to cheat on paying employment taxes.
So run background checks. Check out your employment candidates. Run the E-Verify, the I-9. Conduct a Social Security Trace to verify that your job candidate is working under a valid social security number. His social security number. In short, check them out, before you hire.