Man Murdered for Exposing Scheme Involving Illegal Immigrants

July 16, 2023 9:35 pm

A man tried to expose that his employer made money off illegal immigrants.

For his actions, that whistleblower, Eliud Montoya, was murdered.

This is according to a statement that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia published late last week.

Pablo Rangel-Rubio and his brother, Juan Rangel-Rubio, along with Higinio Perez-Bravo — all illegal immigrants from Mexico — worked for Wolf Tree. That company was under contract to Georgia Power to trim trees in the Savannah area.

“Pablo Rangel-Rubio, a supervisor at Wolf Tree, led a conspiracy to employ illegal aliens to work for the company, and provided those illegal aliens with assumed identities. The conspirators routed the workers’ paychecks to their own bank accounts where they skimmed a portion of the pay for themselves and paid the illegal aliens in cash to avoid detection. They also created fake employee accounts and directed that pay to themselves,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Eliud Montoya, also an employee of Wolf Tree, reported the illegal activity to the company and to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the conspirators shot and killed him near his home. The conspirators are serving federal prison sentences for their roles in Montoya’s murder.”

Wolf Tree is a subsidiary of the Ohio-based Davey Tree Expert Company.

“The companies allegedly conducted an audit of their employee files and determined that a percentage of their employees did not or could not provide sufficient documentation to demonstrate their authorization to be employed in the United States,” according to the DOJ.

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The two companies, the feds went on to say, “unlawfully employed unauthorized workers and failed to verify their authorization status.”

The two companies agreed to pay nearly $4 million. This, to resolve criminal and civil claims related to illegal labor practices, as reported by the murdered whistleblower.

The terms of the settlement includes restitution to the victim’s estate for lost future income. Some money goes to another employee for back wages. Those terms were unspecified. The settlement also includes forfeiture of more than $1.1 million in payments from the companies’ contracts with Georgia Power. They also must pay a civil penalty of $1.5 million for the scheme involving illegal immigrants.

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