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SALT LAKE CITY — Grand America Hotels and Resorts has agreed to pay a nearly $2 million fine to avoid criminal prosecution for hiring employees not authorized to work in the United States.
In addition, the company will cooperate with a Department of Homeland Security investigation and take steps to correct its hiring practices.
Several lower-level Grand America employees and mid-level managers conspired to rehire workers who were let go following a Homeland Security Investigations audit of I-9 employee verification forms in September 2010, according to the agreement.
The audit found 133 employees weren't authorized to work in the U.S. The company was issued a warning notice and it told Homeland Security Investigations it had terminated the workers.
Federal agents, however, later learned that Grand America managers created three temporary employment agencies, essentially shell companies, in August and October 2011 to rehire 43 workers. Most the workers returned under different names using fraudulent identity documents, according to the agreement.
All industries, regardless of size, location and type are expected to comply with the law. As this significant settlement demonstrates, there are real consequences for businesses that employ an illegal workforce.
–Kumar Kibble, Homeland Securities Investigations
"We don’t believe there is evidence of corporate involvement in the efforts to set up the temporary employment agencies and the rehiring of the undocumented workers. Those individuals who participated in criminal activity will be prosecuted for their conduct," acting U.S. Attorney for Utah Carlie Christensen said in a news release.
Grand America fired three managers at the Grand America hotel and one manager at the Little America hotel and reprimanded two others.
The company will pay a $1.95 million fine to Homeland Security and spend another $500,000 to implement new policies to comply with immigration law.
"All industries, regardless of size, location and type are expected to comply with the law," Kumar Kibble, special agent in charge of Homeland Securities Investigations in Denver, which oversees Utah investigations, said. "As this significant settlement demonstrates, there are real consequences for businesses that employ an illegal workforce."
