Two people accused of running fraudulent temp agencies that exploited asylum seekers in Montreal have been sentenced to house arrest for 10 and 18 months.
Beatriz Adriana Guerrero Munoz, 45, and Hector Lopez Ramos, 51, appeared at the Court of Quebec in Montreal on Monday morning to receive the sentences their lawyers had agreed on with the prosecution.
The pair had pleaded guilty to reduced charges three days into their trial in April.
Lopez Ramos and Guerrero Munoz were initially charged with with fraud of more than $5,000 against the Quebec and Canadian governments and conspiracy to commit fraud of more than $5,000.
They — along with another man, Hector Hair Rodriguez Contreras, 56 — ran a scheme Quebec’s Labour Ministry said was the “largest fraud ever committed” against it and for which it estimated government losses at about $635,000.
Lopez Ramos and Guerrero Munoz’s charges were lessened to summary charges of using forged documents, including tax statements, against the Quebec government.
“This isn’t the sentence I would have rendered, but since it’s been agreed upon by two experienced lawyers, I’m going to accept it,” Quebec Court judge Jean-Jacques Gagné said Monday.
Prosecutor Genviève Bélanger said afterward that the sentences weren’t as heavy as they would have been for the original charges.
The sentences also took into account that the accused had saved the government time by cutting the trial short with their guilty pleas, preventing the prosecution from having to prove the exact monetary value of the fraud.
“There was an enormous amount of evidence to be presented and analyzed that the court could have considered [in the trial],” because of how many companies, bank accounts and employees they oversaw, Bélanger said in an interview.
The trio, led by Rodriguez Contreras, ran a number of temp agencies that hired asylum seekers without work permits and paid them below minimum wage in cash or cheques addressed to false identities they assigned to them.
Quebec’s Labour Ministry launched probes into the temp agencies following a 2018 CBC News investigation.
The story revealed a Haitian asylum seeker was severely injured on the job after being recruited at a Montreal Metro station by the network of temp agencies. The man was given a former worker’s name and social insurance number to work under the table at a meat processing plant outside the city.
A meat slicer, which he had barely been shown how to use, cut the top of his hand, requiring an emergency skin graft.
Lopez Ramos and Guerrero Munoz had pleaded not guilty, but changed their pleas shortly after the man’s emotional testimony at trial, outlining how his life had been impacted by the accident — including the pain he still experiences today and the lack of employment opportunities available to him because of it.
Lopez Ramos was sentenced to 18 months of house arrest, followed by two years of probation and 100 hours of community service. Investigators confiscated $5,500 and $7,000 US in cash they found in his belongings.
Guerrero Munoz was sentenced to only 10 months house arrest due to her lesser role in managing the fraudulent agencies, Bélanger said.
Investigators discovered $82,000 in cash and an additional $80,000 in two bank accounts — of which she is allowed to keep 45 per cent.
“Part of their business was legitimate, so it’s not necessarily all the money that was fraud money,” the prosecutor said.
Rodriguez Contreras, who pleaded guilty before trial, is to be sentenced in September.
Bélanger said the prosecution was “satisfied” with the case ending in guilty pleas for all three accused.
“It’s a case that was significant in terms of fraud against the government but also [in the interest of] protecting workers, who, despite sometimes committing fraud themselves, remain vulnerable because they are newcomers and don’t know much about their rights and even obligations,” she said.
