Posted: Apr 22, 2010 7:42 AM PDT Updated: Apr 22, 2010 11:05 AM PDT
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A businessman has been charged with paying illegal immigrants to work at his popular San Diego bistro and catering business after federal officials warned him that the workers' names didn't match their Social Security numbers.
The federal grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday alleges The French Gourmet Inc. received so-called 'no-match' letters from the Social Security Administration in March 2005 and April 2006 but kept employees on board after they submitted new numbers.
The caterer allegedly began paying one employee in cash after he was flagged in a no-match letter and instructed him to get a new Social Security number. His paychecks resumed after he came up with another name and number.
A manager allegedly told another employee "to get a new identity" after he was named in a no-match letter.
Mismatched Social Security numbers has been a hot-button topic since 2007, when the Bush administration proposed that employers be required to fire immigrant workers whose names don't match. The policy failed to survive legal challenges from business and immigrant advocacy groups.
French Gourmet owner Michel Malecot, 58, and manager Richard Kauffmann, 57, pleaded not guilty at their initial court appearances to conspiracy, harboring illegal aliens and false attestation.
Eugene Iredale, an attorney for the caterer and Malecot, said the Social Security no-match letters are "extremely confusing" because they do not go beyond pointing out the discrepancy — a common complaint among business leaders.
"You'd think it would say don't hire this person, fire this person," he said. "All they're saying is, 'We don't have this person on file but we're not telling you what to do. You take whatever action you think is right.'"
Jeremy Warren, an attorney for Kauffmann, agreed.
"You're between a rock and a hard place," he said.
It is rare for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to build cases against employers on no-match letters.
Josie Gonzalez, a Pasadena immigration attorney who is not involved in the case, said the government has used the letters as evidence in other cases. But the employer's response to the letters is much more critical, including whether employees were paid in cash or without a Social Security number after getting the letters, she said.
"Some employers take a more laissez-faire approach and leave it up to the employee to clear up the discrepancy," Gonzalez said. "Other employers are more proactive and demand that the employee clear it up in a given time frame or get fired."
Dan Kowalski, editor of Bender's Immigration Bulletin, said employers ignore no-match letters at their peril. Most workers will admit being in the country illegally when confronted by their supervisors, he said. Often, they simply quit.
"When an employee gets called into HR, they know the jig is up," he said.
The French Gourmet is an institution in San Diego's oceanfront Pacific Beach neighborhood, known for the hundreds of wedding cakes it makes each year. Malecot, a naturalized U.S. citizen, founded the business in 1979.
Malecot donates time, money or food to 150 charity events a year, Iredale said.
ICE arrested 18 employees at the restaurant in May 2008. At the time, it said they were suspected illegal immigrants from Mexico.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
