A Head of Harbor man was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison for smuggling undocumented immigrants to work in 7-Eleven stores that he owned on Long Island and stealing their pay.
Farrukh Baig had pleaded guilty in September at Central Islip federal court to wire fraud and concealing and harboring illegal aliens for financial gain.
“The defendant exploited his alien employees, stealing their wages and requiring them to live in unregulated boarding houses,” said Kelly Currie, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Prosecutors said that 58-year-old man, who owned 14 of the stores—10 in New York and four more in Virginia—hired dozens of undocumented workers from Pakistan, gave them stolen identities and stole more than $2.6 million of their wages.
The court also ordered him to forfeit his stores as well as five houses worth more than $1.3 million, authorities said. Aside from his prison term, he was also sentenced to repay the wages he stole from his workers.
Baig’s wife, Bushra, who co-owned the stores, also pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to conceal and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain. She was reportedly sentenced to three months time served.
Currie said the investigation is continuing.
