The owner of a now-closed Scranton temporary employment agency will spend one year in prison for recruiting people living in the U.S. illegally to work at local businesses and illegally paying them under the table to conceal the scheme.
Senior U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo sentenced the owner of H&Y Staffing, Rama Putra, 32, on Thursday at the federal courthouse in Scranton.
A federal grand jury indicted Mr. Putra in October on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and employing illegal aliens after federal investigators discovered he recruited about 25 people illegally living in the U.S. to work at his company.
Mr. Putra provided the temp workers to several local businesses, including Pasqualichio Brothers, a meat product business on Franklin Avenue in Scranton; Spotless Cleaners in Dunmore; Perpetual Candle in Scranton; and Cook Foods in Old Forge, according to the indictment.
To pay the workers, the companies issued checks to Mr. Putra, of Scranton.
Mr. Putra then traveled to Philadelphia to cash the checks at several check-cashing businesses, the indictment stated.
With cash in hand, he paid the workers "under the table" to avoid federal and state tax reporting requirements, including payment of unemployment compensation, to increase profits and to "systematically conceal" they worked for his agency, according to the indictment.
Mr. Putra paid them cash on a weekly basis from January 2007 to September 2012, the indictment stated. He also transported them to work.
State records list the former business at 1710 Cedar Ave., Building C.
Mr. Putra pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to commit money laundering and the employment and transportation of illegal aliens.
Law enforcement officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, state police and federal prosecutors with the Middle District of Pennsylvania worked on the case.
Mr. Putra also faces the possibility of deportation.
In the judge's sentencing order, he recommended the Federal Bureau of Prisons allow Mr. Putra to serve out his sentence at the Lackawanna County Prison.
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