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April 29, 2009
Farm owners face visa counts
Aloun Farm owners Alec and Mike Sou pleaded not guilty in federal court
yesterday to conspiracy and visa fraud charges stemming from the
importation of 44 workers from
Federal authorities allege the Sou brothers lied on visa applications to
import the workers and, once they arrived, took their passports, forced
them to work for wages less than promised and restricted their contact
with others.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging the Sous
and Thai labor recruiter William Khoo with conspiring to commit forced
labor and visa fraud.
The Sous have until next week to each post $10,000 cash of a $100,000
bond to continue to remain free pending trial in October.
Khoo was not in court yesterday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Chang
issued a warrant for his arrest.
A fourth man, California businessman Matee Chowsanitphon, pleaded guilty
yesterday to failing to report his knowledge of the visa fraud and is
cooperating with the government.
Alec Sou had been aware an indictment was pending and made himself
available to the government, his lawyer Howard Luke said.
The 44 workers each paid an upfront $16,000 recruitment fee for what
were supposed to be temporary jobs, said Susan French, trial attorney
with the Justice Department's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit. The
money paid for the workers' airfare and visa applications, she said.
Khoo, local Thai recruiting companies, the Sous, Chowsanitphon and an
unnamed co-conspirator allegedly split the rest.
The workers paid the fee with loans secured with their homes and
subsistence farm lands, according to the indictment.
Chowsanitphon, 55, traveled to
He
received $5,500 per worker, the indictment said.
"I
did not disclose this information in the application and put the money
in somebody else's account," Chowsanitphon said.
The
U.S. Department of Labor's guest worker program prohibits requiring
workers to pay recruitment commission. It also requires employers to pay
for the workers' airfare to the
The
Sous deducted from the workers' earnings money to pay for their housing,
meals and payments for their high-interest bank loans in
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