A years-long federal investigation into illegal staffing companies that brought undocumented foreign workers into the United States and got them jobs at Key West and Florida Keys hotels, bars and restaurants continued this week when two Ukrainian men received lengthy prison sentences.
Oleg Oliynyk and Oleksandr Yurchyk were sentenced to 15 years each for conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to court documents, Oliynyk, Yurchyk and others owned and operated a series of labor-staffing companies in South Florida — Paradise Choice, Paradise Choice Cleaning, Tropical City Services and Tropical City Group — from at least April 2008 and August 2021.
“Through these staffing companies, Oliynyk, Yurchyk and co-defendants Oleksandr Morgunov, Mykhaylo Chugay and Volodymyr Ogorodnychuk facilitated the employment of non-resident aliens in the hospitality industry who were not authorized to work in the United States and helped evade the assessment and collection of more than $25 million of federal income and employment taxes,” states a press release from the Department of Justice.
The staffing companies provided illegal foreign workers to multiple hotels and restaurants in Key West and Marathon.
In addition to the prison terms, U.S. District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez ordered Oliynyk and Yurchyk to each serve three years of supervised release, pay $10.8 million in restitution to the United States and to forfeit $11 million.
Oliynyk and Yurchyk are the latest defendants sentenced as part of Operation RoomKey, a joint criminal investigation led by the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Homeland Security Investigations and IRS Criminal Investigation.
The investigation and resulting indictments began in August 2021 and eventually resulted in a dozen convictions and prison sentences that ranged from two to 24 years.
Co-defendant Chugay was convicted at trial in June 2022, and sentenced to more than 24 years in prison. Co-defendants Morgunov and Ogorodnychuk each pleaded guilty and were sentenced to eight years and four years in prison, respectively.
The investigations related to Operation RoomKey are ongoing.
In August 2021, when four of the suspects were federally indicted, their staffing companies — and others that were concerned about similar legal trouble — shut down, leaving hundreds of illegal workers without income and often without their employer-provided housing.
Those indictments and the shutdown of staffing agencies also led to crippling labor shortages at Florida Keys hotels and restaurants that rely on the foreign workers. The situation left dozens of Keys hotels without housekeepers, dishwashers and other crucial positions.
A Marathon hotel employee who asked to remain anonymous told the Keys Weekly in August 2021 that when she signed with the labor agency, no one explained U.S. labor laws or asked her for any identification or proof of her eligibility to work in the United States.
Read the Keys Weekly’s story from August 2021 here: keysweekly.com/42/help-needed-keys-hotels-lose-staff-to-labor-investigation/.
