Three guilty of hiring illegal immigrants

Three Cincinnati construction contractors face up to five years in prison after pleading guilty this week to tax charges related to the hiring of illegal immigrants.

Federal prosecutors say all three men tried to conceal payments to illegal immigrants by writing checks for large amounts of money to a handful of employees, who then gave the cash back to the contractors so they could pay dozens of workers off the books.

Chakib Roumani and Alfonso Padilla, who operate R.M.P. Construction Inc., pleaded guilty Tuesday to tax evasion charges in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. Reyes Mijangos, who operates R&T Drywall and Reyes Construction, pleaded guilty to failing to collect and pay employment taxes.

Prosecutors say Roumani, 37, and Padilla, 45, employed at least 20 people as construction laborers, and most of them were illegal immigrants.

According to court records, the two men issued checks to two employees for the entire weekly payroll amount and then paid the others with cash from those checks.

If the total payroll was more than $10,000, prosecutors say, Roumani and Padilla would issue multiple checks to avoid federal currency reporting requirements for banks.

IRS investigators say the two men concealed payments of about $1 million between 2005 and 2006, resulting in a tax loss to the IRS of about $150,000.

Mijangos, 48, employed between 50 and 100 people at his companies, prosecutors say, including many illegal immigrants. He paid wages totaling more than $2.2 million in 2005 but avoided paying employment taxes by writing checks to only a few employees, who then paid the others.

U.S. District Judge Herman Weber accepted the pleas Tuesday and will sentence all three men in April.