Two Ukrainian nationals made their initial appearance yesterday on a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Miami charging them with crimes related to labor-staffing companies they operated in Florida. The two men were extradited from the Kingdom of Thailand to the United States last week.
According to the superseding indictment, between August 2007 and July 2021, Oleg Oliynyk, Oleksandr Yurchyk and others owned and operated a series of labour-staffing companies in South Florida, including Paradise Choice LLC, Paradise Choice Cleaning LLC, Tropical City Services LLC and Tropical City Group LLC.
The indictment alleges that the defendants, through these staffing companies, facilitated the employment in the hospitality industry of non-resident aliens who were not authorised to work in the United States.
In addition, Oliynyk and Yurchyk allegedly conspired to defraud the IRS by, among other things, not withholding Social Security, Medicare and income taxes from these workers’ paychecks and causing false corporate tax returns for the labor-staffing companies to be filed with the IRS.
Both defendants were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to harbour non-resident aliens and induce them to remain in the country and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the conspiracy to defraud the United States charge, a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the conspiracy to harbour aliens and induce them to remain in the United States charge and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the money laundering conspiracy charge.
Each count also carries the possibility of a fine and supervised release upon completion of any sentence of incarceration. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
