KANSAS CITY, Mo. -From a nondescript brick building a few blocks from
the bright lights of Westport, Kansas City’s oldest entertainment
district, Giant Labor Solutions lured hundreds of foreigners to the
city with promises of good jobs and a chance to live the American dream.
But
from 2001 until this spring, Giant Labor and two other metro-area
companies turned the workers into slaves, fanning them out to
housekeeping jobs in hotels and other businesses in 14 states while
forcing them to live, sometimes eight at a time, in small apartments
for which they were charged exorbitant rent, federal authorities
allege. Most of the workers were in the country illegally and were
threatened with deportation.
The company denies the allegations.
In
a 45-count indictment handed down in May, the U.S. Attorney’s Office
accuses eight Uzbekistan nationals and four others in the largest human
trafficking case ever prosecuted in the city. Authorities say it is the
first time a human trafficking ring has been charged under the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the federal statute
most often associated with mafia cases.
It’s
also the first time the charge of fraud in foreign labor contracting
has been used since it was added last year to the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act, which in 2000 became the first comprehensive federal
law for prosecution of traffickers.
G. Robert Blakey, a
professor at Notre Dame Law School who helped write the RICO statute in
1970, said the law allows prosecutors to try criminal operations as a
whole, rather than individually. RICO requires prosecutors to present
evidence against everyone involved in a racketeering ring, instead of
being limited to evidence against only that person, he said.
By
presenting a bigger case, the government also has more leverage to
pursue bigger forfeitures, such as the $6 million it is seeking in the
Giant Labor case.
Prosecutors allege a pattern of
racketeering in the Giant Labor case that included threatening victims
with serious harm to themselves or others and threatening to use the
legal system against them.
The indictment says Abrorkhodja
Askarkhodjaev, 30, owned and operated Giant Labor, a labor-leasing
company, and controlled a dozen other businesses that filed fraudulent
applications for foreign workers. Askarkhodjaev and others used false
IDs to create the companies and open dozens of bank accounts for them,
prosecutors said.
The
workers, who were mainly from the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the
Philippines, paid thousands of dollars – often taking out loans in
their home countries – for Giant Labor to bring them to the U.S. and
get them temporary visas, authorities said. But once they arrived, the
workers were stuck in small, sparsely furnished apartments, had no
access to their mail and were charged so many fees that they were
sometimes told on payday they owed the company money.
Askarkhodjaev’s attorney, Willie Epps Jr., said his client denies that his companies were involved in human trafficking.
“The
government’s assertion of modern-day slavery is inaccurate and
offensive,” Epps told the Associated Press in a statement. “Abror
Askarkhodjaev has pleaded not guilty to the charges and intends to
proceed to trial.”
The 13 other defendants held positions
with Giant Labor or the other companies, several of which had addresses
at UPS stores in Missouri and Kansas. At least two businesses were
operated out of apartments, the indictment said.
Giant
Labor, Crystal Management Inc. and Five Star Cleaning applied for more
than 1,000 fraudulent work visas without being required to identify who
would be using them, prosecutors said.
Once the visas were
approved and the workers arrived in Kansas City, Giant Labor used them
to fill labor contracts in Missouri, Kansas, Arizona, California,
Florida and eight other states.
Eight of the suspects have been arrested, while the others are believed to have fled the country. No trial date has been set.
