Over a dozen 7-Eleven franchises have been discovered taking in over $180 million in revenue by running what New York prosecutors called a "modern-day plantation system," according to the New York Times. The franchises hired dozens of illegal immigrants using fake social security numbers.
Federal authorities seized fourteen stores on Long Island and in Virginia on Monday, ending with the arrest of nine owners and managers, and seized property, which included five houses. There are 40 other 7-Eleven franchises under investigation in New York City and in other areas for what is one of the largest criminal immigrant employment investigations ever conducted by the Justice and Homeland Security Departments, according to officials.
The owners and managers recruited over 50 illegal immigrants and gave them identities stolen from American citizens, including children and the deceased.
The employees then worked for 100 hours a week, but were only paid for a small fraction of that time. They were forced to live in substandard housing owned by the operators of the franchises, according to authorities.
There are no safeguards in place to protect employees of 7-Eleven Inc. from payroll fraud. The company runs over 7,600 stores in the U.S.
There was "little to no effort to insure the integrity of their payroll system," Loretta E. Lynch, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, whose office assisted with the investigation, told the New York Times.
The company will "take aggressive actions to audit the employment status of all its franchisees' employees," Scott Matter, a spokesman for 7-Eleven, Inc. said in a statement. The company is cooperating with federal authorities.
Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been auditing employers' hiring records to detect illegal immigrant workers. The abuse the immigrants working at 7-Eleven received is the type of violation the office is treating as a priority, though Vincent Picard, an ICE spokesman, said that the raids weren't related to any current political debate.
The case began two years ago when a 7-Eleven worker approached the New York State Police about not being compensated for his work. Another employee later contacted the Suffolk County police.
The investigation then led to two families and their associates, who have roots in Pakistan and the Philippines.
Farrukh and Bushra Baig, American citizens from Pakistan who are married and living on Long Island, owned and managed 12 stores in New York and Virginia along with Baig's brothers, Zahid and Shannawaz and his associates, Malik Yousaf, Tariq Rana and Ramon Nananas. All of them have been charged.
The employees "were not innocent victims in this scheme," but they have been abused, said Lynch. Agents from ICE are interviewing some of them as potential witnesses and aren't currently seeking to deport them, according to Picard.
"From their 7-Eleven stores, the defendants dispensed wire fraud and identity theft, along with Slurpees and hot dogs," Lynch said. "In bedroom communities across Long Island and Virginia, the defendants not only systematically employed illegal immigrants, but concealed their crimes by raiding the cradle and grave to steal the identity of children and even the dead."
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