Key West staffing company accused of bringing in undocumented workers
The owners of a now-defunct Key West staffing agency were charged by federal prosecutors this week with conspiring to facilitate the hiring of more than 100 undocumented workers by area bars, restaurants and hotels and to withhold income and employment taxes.
One of the owners, Igor Kasyanenko, was a decorated Key West police officer at the time the alleged crimes were committed, federal prosecutors say.
Another owner and an employee are also charged with knowingly providing Keys businesses with workers they “knew or had reason to believe” were not authorized to work in the United States, according to the Dec. 20 charging document.
Phoenix ADB Services owners Kasyanenko and Roman Riabov face a maximum five-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine if convicted on a charge each of conspiracy to defraud the United States. And, Phoenix owner Mikus Berzins and employee Andrejs Kozlovs face the same sentence on a charge each of knowingly “hiring at least 10 aliens.”
Riabov, Berzins and Kozlovs could not be reached for comment. A voicemail to a cell phone listed to a realty practice operated by Kasyanenko was not returned.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a question asking if the men were taken into custody.
The men were charged by an “information” brought by federal prosecutors, not by a grand jury. According to the charging document, Berzins, Kasyanenko and Riabov owned and operated Phoenix from October 2014 to October 2020. Kozlovs worked for the firm from August 2016 to October 2020.
The charging document states that Kasyanenko and Riabov “entered into written contracts and verbal agreements with hotels, bars and restaurants in Key West and elsewhere to provide labor staffing services.”
Prosecutors say the clients “knew or had reason to believe” that the workers Phoenix provided weren’t authorized to work in the U.S. and that federal income and employment taxes were not being withheld from their gross wages.
Berzins and Kozlovs are accused of helping various hospitality businesses not named in the information hire dozens of workers whom all involved knew were not authorized to work in the country.
Kasyanenko resigned from the Key West Police Department on July 25 after having worked there for seven years, according to police spokeswoman Alyson Crean.
He received a department commendation in August 2018, along with two colleagues, for stopping a 17-year-old boy from committing suicide by jumping off the roof of the Habana Plaza earlier that year. While one officer distracted the boy, Kasyanenko and another officer climbed onto the roof, sneaked up behind him and grabbed him before he could jump, according to the commendation.
Before he left, he was making $77,343 a year. While with KWPD, he was given written reprimands in January 2016 and in April 2016. The one in April was reduced from a 12-hour suspension from disciplinary action on Jan. 15, 2016.
Case reports were not available Tuesday, Crean said. He received counseling from a supervisor three times in 2015, but details were not available either on Tuesday.
Kasyanenko also has an active real estate broker license in Florida that was issued in 2020, according to the state license search website.
