Partner in Florida-based staffing firms sentenced to 24 years in prison for tax, immigration and money laundering crimes

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A partner in several labor staffing companies operating in Key West, Florida, was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for tax, immigration and money laundering crimes, the US Department of Justice reported Friday.

The partner, Mykhaylo Chugay, and his co-conspirators Oleksandr Morgunov and Volodymyr Ogorodnychuk were first indicted on charges of immigration and money laundering fraud in 2021.

Ogorodnychuk, who served as manager of the staffing firms, was sentenced to four years in prison on Aug. 8.

According to the department, between August 2007 and July 2021, Mykhaylo Chugay and his co-conspirators owned and operated a series of staffing companies — General Labor Solutions LLC, Liberty Specialty Service LLC, Paradise Choice LLC, Paradise Choice Cleaning LLC, Tropical City Services LLC and Tropical City Group LLC — and facilitated the employment of individuals in hotels, bars and restaurants in Key West and other locations when the employees were not authorized to work in the US.

In addition, Chugay and his co-conspirators defrauded the IRS out of more than $25 million in income and Social Security and Medicare taxes and sent checks and wires totaling more than $11 million in proceeds from the illegal scheme to conspirators in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Chugay will also serve three years of supervised release.

“Chugay’s illegal staffing and money laundering operation lasted more than a decade and cost the government millions of dollars in unpaid payroll taxes,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “Employers who follow the rules and pay their fair share of taxes deserve to compete on a level playing field. Those who cut corners and evade their legal obligations should know they will be investigated and prosecuted.”