Three people accused of executing fraudulent temporary agencies that exploited asylum seekers, and tried to hide a work accident later discovered by a 2018 CBC investigation, declared themselves guilty.
The Quebec Ministry of Labor has called the scheme the “largest fraud ever committed” against it and has estimated government losses in approximately $ 635,000 as a result of the operation.
Héctor Rodríguez Contreras, 56, Héctor López Ramos, 51, and Beatriz Adriana Guerrero Muñoz, 45, were initially accused of fraud of more than $ 5,000 against the governments of Quebec and Canada and the conspiracy to commit fraud of more than $ 5,000.
Rodríguez Contreras declared himself guilty of those positions in April, approximately three weeks before his trial began in the Quebec court.
The trio, led by Rodríguez Contreras, led a series of temporary agencies that hired asylum applicants without work permissions and paid them below the minimum cash salary or checks aimed at false identities assigned to them.
The judicial documents presented after the guilt statements establish that the Quebec Ministry of Labor launched probes to the agencies early after the CBC investigation.
Asylum seeker still with pain
The story had revealed that an asylum applicant was seriously injured at work after being recruited at a Montreal Metro station for a dark network of temples. They gave him the name of a former worker and the Social Security number to work under the table at a meat processing plant outside the city.
Prosecutor Gineviève Bélanger said that part of the group’s operations were legitimate, which the government makes it difficult to detect fraud.
“That was part of the scheme. For part of their business, if you wish, they would do things in order, while for another part, they would not, which also allowed them to fly under the radar,” Bélanger said in an interview last week.
The asylum applicant testified at the trial of López Ramos and Guerrero Muñoz in May before the judge of the Court of Quebec Rose-Mélanie Drivod.
The upper part of his hand was cut by a meat cutter, which, he told CBC at that time, they had not shown him correctly how to use. In emergency surgery, doctors performed a skin graft taken from their thigh to rebuild their hand.
He told court that years later, he still has pain.
The Tempo agency that hired him did not declare the accident to the Health and Safety Board in Quebec’s workplace, until the latter intervened after the history of CBC and forced the company to compensate for it.
The man, who is now 39, said in court that he had planned to work on the construction in Quebec, when he arrived in Canada in August 2017 and would have made a good salary that way, but instead he has worked as a commercial security guard for more than five years. He and his wife have three children with them in Montreal.
2 declared guilty of reduced charges
Three days after the trial and shortly after the worker’s testimony, López Ramos and Guerrero Muñoz declared reduced charges of using counterfeit documents, including tax statements, against the Quebec government.
Bélanger said that the worker’s testimony was emotional and powerful.
“Clearly demonstrated the risk that this kind of thing poses when agencies do not respect [work] Standards, “he said.
The statements of the facts presented in the Court say that the investigation of the Ministry of Labor, called Tarmac, revealed that more than 400 of the workers of the companies had also been claiming some form of unemployment benefits, many of them new immigrants who had little knowledge of Quebec’s standards and labor protections.
“The leaders of the network took advantage of the vulnerability of some of the workers,” said the facts.
Martin Subak, a lawyer for López Ramos, says he declares himself guilty after a trial has begun “is commonly made to prove the evidence a little.”
He said that part of the reason why his client and his coacked ended up receiving minor positions was because “his roles were subordinated” to Rodríguez Contreras. The charges against him could lead to a maximum of two years in jail, while fraud charges against Rodríguez Contreras have a maximum imprisonment of 14 years.
Reached by CBC’s Thursday, Rodríguez Contreras’ lawyer, Richard Tawil, said he still did not have the authorization of his client to talk about the case, since he was not yet closed. The defendant is ready to reappear on two separate dates in the Montreal Justice Palace in mid -July for the sentence.
