by KYW's Paul Kurtz
A federal grand jury has indicted a car wash franchisee and five area executives for allegedly harboring illegal aliens and committing identity theft in the process.
US attorney Pat Meehan says that from 2000 through 2006, the five Car Care managers hired illegal immigrants at minimum wage and maintained a file of phony I-9 employee verification forms:
"In numerous instances the identity ran with the job. As different individuals came in and out of the workforce, they acquired false IDs to conform with the I-9 that was on file."
Meehan says the managers provided the illegals with the names and Social Security numbers of former workers, submitted hours worked to payroll departments in the name of former employees, and reported their earnings to the IRS and state governments.
When the manager ran out of names, investigators say, he got one from another Car Care. At one car wash, Meehan says, up to 90 percent of the defendant's workforce were illegal immigrants.
Fifty-seven people have since been arrested, 14 of whom have been deported.
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