(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A former staffing company executive who pleaded guilty in federal court to exploiting undocumented workers will not be spending any time behind bars.
Sergio Badani, 51, of St. Charles was sentenced Monday to two years’ probation and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine, Chicago-based federal prosecutors announced.
Badani, a vice president of operations for a Chicago staffing company, helped conceal the true identities of 17 undocumented workers as his company collected more than $1 million in fees from a factory, authorities alleged.
The plant had previously been cited by authorities, and owners worked with Badani to keep the same people employed after telling the government they’d been fired.
Badani admitted he received bonuses through the deal. He pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit alien harboring for purposes of commercial advantage.
“When businesses knowingly hire an illegal workforce, it threatens the integrity of our country’s immigration system, economic health and puts the security of our homeland at risk,” said R. Sean Fitzgerald, acting special agent-in-charge of the Chicago office of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.
Other work in the case continues. Four employees of KSO MetalFab Inc. of Streamwood await trial on charges they knowingly hired and harbored undocumented workers.
They have pleaded not guilty, prosecutors say.
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