Four Russian nationals and a Polish national, who were involved with a Branson, Mo., company that provides workers to area hotels, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday for submitting false statements to obtain foreign labor visas for hundreds of employees.
Friday's indictments were announced by Bradley J. Schlozman, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General.
Serguei Choukline, also known as Anton Kim, 48, and his wife, Irina Choukline, 44, both of whom were born in Russia and now reside in Springfield, Mo., Anna Bauer, 28, who was born in Russia and resides in Falls Church, Va., Irina Lemetyuynen, 38, who was born in Russia and resides in Springfield, and Angnieszka Koblenc, 31, who was born in Poland and resides in Springfield, were charged in a 17-count second superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006.
Serguei Choukline was a director and Irina Choukline was the secretary of Midwest Hotel Management Corp., 1316 W. Hwy. 76 in Branson, Mo. Bauer, Lemetyuynen and Koblenc were employees of Midwest.
The Chouklines, Lemetyuynen and Koblenc were arrested yesterday and had their initial appearance in federal court in Springfield. Bauer was arrested and appeared in federal court in Virginia. Lemetyuynen and Koblenc remain in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Dec. 1. Irina Choukline was released on a $25,000 bond and Serguei Choukline was continued on his earlier $50,000 bond. Bauer was also released on bond.
This second superseding indictment replaces an earlier indictment by adding Irina Choukline, Bauer, Lemetyuynen and Koblenc as co-defendants and omitting Monica A. Lopez, 25, a citizen of Mexico residing in the Branson area, who pleaded guilty the charge of aiding and abetting visa fraud that was contained in a Feb. 8, 2006, superseding indictment. Lopez was director of human resources for Midwest.
The federal indictment, Schlozman explained, involves the use of temporary worker visas. The temporary worker program is designed to allow foreign workers to provide labor for certain industries after it has been determined that there is a legitimate need for the work and that there are an insufficient number of citizens or other legal aliens to provide the labor.
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