Employers who hired illegals fined, may get jail time

A Southern California man who owns and operates a furniture manufacturing plant was arrested and charged with hiring illegal aliens this week.

The Orange County man, Rick Vartanian, who is the primary shareholder in the Rancho Cucamonga Brownwood Furniture company is accused and charged with criminal information with obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor count of continuing to employ unauthorized employees.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says “Vartanian told investigators that unauthorized workers identified during an earlier immigration audit were no longer employed by the company, when, in fact, the firm continued to employ 18 of those workers and had taken steps to shield them from detection.”

As a result ICE agents executed a search warrant at the furniture manufacturing plant in December and found the 18 illegal immigrant employees still working.

The owner, Vartanian has already agreed to a $10,000 fine and will face a maximum of 66 months in federal prison for defying the orders from ICE in December.

However, Vartanian is not alone in facing law enforcement charges. Just three weeks ago Brownwood Furniture’s Vice President Michael Eberly was served with legal documents for his role in keeping illegal aliens on the payroll.

He faces criminal information charges with a misdemeanor count of continuing to employ illegals after ICE notified him to correct the problem, according to ICE agents.

According to the ICE charging documents, Eberly knew that a number of the furniture company's workers were not unauthorized for employment and continued to keep them on the payroll.

ICE says, Eberly has agreed to pay a $5,000 fine, and also faces a maximum sentence of six months in prison for his role in hiring and retaining illegal immigrants.

There is no word yet what ICE will do with the 18 employees who also continued to work knowing there were federal investigations into their legal status.

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