Bonded Labor2009
United States US
According to the Department of Justice, twelve defendants including eight Uzbekistan nationals have been charged in a 45-count indictment returned by a grand jury on May 6, 2009 using RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act). Charges include labor racketeering, forced labor trafficking and immigrations, and other violations in 14 states. Those charged include Abrorkhodja Askerkhedjaev, Nadir Yunusov, Rustamjon Shukurov, of Mission, KS; Ilkham Fazilov, Nodirbek Abdoollayev of Kansas City, Mo; Viorel Simon, Alexandru Frumasche both citizens of Moldova residing in Kansas City, KS; Kristin Dougherty of Ellisville, MO, Andrew Cole of St. Charles, MO, Abdukakhor Azizkhodjaev of Panama City, FL and Sandjar Agzamov and Jakjongir Kakhkarov who are citizens of Uzbekistan but are currently living abroad.
Forced Labor2011
United States US
Abrorkhodja Askarkhodjaev, 32, from Uzbekistan pleaded guilty in October to four charges. He contended his marriage to an Independence woman had been real, and not a sham engineered to win him a permanent U.S. residency card. The woman testified that she married him in exchange for $5,000 and never consummated the relationship. She later pleaded guilty to a federal marriage fraud charge. Askarkhodjaev brought more than 1,000 foreign laborers to the Kansas City area by fraudulently manipulating a complex work visa program. He and his co-conspirators negotiated contracts with some of Kansas City’s finest hotels and resorts to put those laborers to work. Watching his pennies, he larded fees for uniforms, housing and transportation onto his workers’ paychecks and had some of them working for less than $1 per hour. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith ordered that he be deported when his sentence is completed. Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/09/2863391/12-year-sentence-handed-down-in.html#ixzz1M3qqKaXJ Askarkhodjaev managed a scheme that lured foreign workers to Kansas City with promises of good jobs in hotels and other service industries. Prosecutors say more than 1,000 workers were instead treated as slaves, warned that their temporary visas could be pulled and suffered threats of harm to their families. The workers, mainly from the Philippines, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, paid thousands of dollars to Giant Labor to come to the U.S. with temporary visas. But once they arrived, they lived in small, sparsely furnished apartments, had no access to their mail and were charged so many fees that they sometimes owed the company money. The enterprise illegally made more than $6 million, prosecutors said. Eleven other people were charged in the case, which prosecutors say was one of the largest labor racketeering schemes ever uncovered in the U.S. According to the indictment, Askarkhodjaev owned and operated a labor leasing company, Giant Labor Solutions, at 607 Westport Road in Kansas City. Through Giant Labor and a dozen other businesses that he associated with or controlled as part of the criminal enterprise, Askarkhodjaev secured fraudulent labor leasing contracts from clients in the hotel/resort, casino, and construction industries in Missouri, Kansas, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wyoming. The criminal enterprise allegedly used illegal aliens as part of its workforce to fulfill labor contracts for housekeeping, cleaning services and other duties. Giant Labor’s workforce was predominately comprised of foreign nationals, the indictment says, who either entered the United States illegally, overstayed their visas, or did not have legal authorization to reside or work in their specific locations within the United States during their term of employment. http://kansascity.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/kc052709.htm
Forced Labor2010
United States US
A Missouri man recruited workers from the Dominican Republic with false promises of hotel jobs in the Kansas City area, knowing they would not be paid the promised wages, that many would be sent to factory jobs in Alabama, and that threats of deportation would be used to keep them working.