Immigration laws are cited in indictment

The indictment says the scam stole $5.3 million in fees from the businesses.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A temporary employment agency indicted on immigration charges once hired two men who were arrested in a post-Sept. 11 terrorist investigation, but the latest case is limited to immigration issues, the government said Friday.
"It is exactly as specified in the indictment," said Dean Boyd, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman.
The indictment naming the HV Connect agency doesn't mention terrorist issues. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who announced arrests in the latest case on Tuesday, emphasized worksite enforcement issues and also omitted any mention of terrorism.
The indictment also mentions another employment agency and nine individuals, most of them employees of the agencies.
The suspects are scheduled for arraignment April 27 in Cleveland. Five suspects were arrested Tuesday in New York, Philadelphia and Columbus; three remain at large; and the ninth has arranged to surrender April 27, Boyd said.
One thing leads to another
Boyd said the employment agency investigation followed the arrests of two former HV Connect workers six days after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"It is true some of the concerns that were raised with those arrests shortly after 9/11 and the fact that they had previously been employed by HV Connect caused us to look more closely at this employment agency, which ultimately prompted this investigation into illegal employment, harboring and money laundering," Boyd said.
The workers, Ahmed Hannan and Karim Koubriti, both from Morocco, were arrested in Detroit in 2001 on charges of having false identification papers and were accused of forming a terrorist cell with two others.
The current indictment accuses HV Connect, TN Job Service and the nine individuals with providing illegal immigrants with false documentation to businesses seeking temporary workers. The alleged scam stole $5.3 million in fees from those businesses, according to the indictment, which was unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Through HV Connect, Hannan and Koubriti worked briefly at Case Foods Inc., which operates the Case Farms chicken slaughterhouse near Winesburg in eastern Ohio.
How case failed
Koubriti was convicted in 2003 of conspiracy to aid terrorists, and both men were convicted of document fraud. The convictions were thrown out and the charges dismissed in 2004 at the Justice Department's request, after the agency discovered some documents that could have aided the defense were not turned over by the government. The former lead prosecutor in that case is under investigation.
According to the current indictment, the two job agencies would place workers they said had U.S. work authorization and promise to pay payroll taxes and workers' compensation premiums from fees paid by the employers.
The government accuses the agency workers of using the money instead to build a home, buy jewelry and liquor, and spend money at casinos. The undocumented workers were paid in cash.
The government said HV Connect has operated in Philadelphia and Canton; and TN Job Service operated in Philadelphia; Pennsauken, N.J.; and Canton and New Philadelphia in eastern Ohio.