A $36 million Florida company hid unauthorized alien workers from Homeland Security
Hiding undocumented immigrants from Homeland Security to continue employing them got a Fort Pierce company fined, its CEO some prison time and other executives put on probation.
TentLogix CEO Gary Hendry, 53, will move from his $1.8 million Jensen Beach home to federal prison soon after getting a year and a day for conspiracy to harbor aliens for the purpose of commercial advantage. Hendry also loses $282,789 in property or cash forfeiture along with a $75,000 fine.
Getting five years’ probation for the same charge allowed TentLogix president Dennis Birdsall to stay in his Stuart home while losing $170,943 in forfeiture and paying a $15,000 fine. Corporate officer Kent Hughes got three years’ probation on the charge, gave up $80,000 and got a $7,500 fine.
As a company, TentLogix, which describes itself as a provider of “world class tent rental solutions” for events, goes on four years’ probation and forfeits $3,033,946.
The case came through federal court in Fort Pierce.
Hendry, Birdsall and Hughes didn’t hide their workforce from Homeland Security in hidden passageways in the main house, underground warrens or even car trunks. They did it the white collar way — they hid 92 humans on paper.
The Scheme
According to Hendry’s admission of facts, TentLogix grossed $21 million with a $10 million profit in 2016 and $36 million with a $14 million profit in 2017. In April 2016, Homeland Security audited TentLogix’s Form I-9s, the form employers have to complete for everyone hired for work in the United States.
TentLogix sent 164 Form I-9s to Homeland Security. Of those, Homeland Security thought 96 weren’t authorized to work in the U.S.
In July 2016, “HSI provided TentLogix with a list of the 96 employees and warned TentLogix it could be subject to criminal charges if it continued to employ these aliens,” Hendry’s admission says.
So, Hendry had Hughes create KH Services, which registered with the state of Florida on March 20, 2017, and transferred the unauthorized workers to KH Services. Hughes used his home address for KH Services.
“Hendry agreed to cover all of the costs associated with KH Services, and agreed to pay Hughes a fee for each alien who was transferred from TentLogix’s payroll to KH Services’ payroll,” Hendry’s admission says.
But they didn’t just rely on paper transfers to conceal the workers from Homeland Security:
“Hendry and Birdsall made GMC, who was a supervisor at TentLogix, aware of the scheme and directed GMC to tell the aliens employed by TentLogix to obtain new identities, including Social Security numbers. GMC was primarily responsible for recruiting the aliens who worked for TentLogix, most of whom were from Guatemala.”
On May 5, 2017, TentLogix told Homeland Security that 92 of the 96 employees had been fired.
In reality, they still worked for TentLogix and the company paid them through KH Services via $3 million over 23 wire transfers.
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 11:28 AM.
