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Woman in illegal recruitment case pleads guilty
A corporation president pleaded guilty on Friday to two counts of mail fraud.
Arlene D. Hart, also known as Arlene H. Silva, was accused in federal court of recruiting Filipino workers for a fee, promising them housekeeping jobs on Saipan using fraudulent contracts.
Hart will be sentenced on Oct. 6, 2017. U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona allowed her to remain free until then.
Hart’s lawyer, David Banes, said his client is willing to pay restitution to the victims and has agreed to a possible forfeiture.
Assistant U.S. attorney James Benedetto said they are still looking into Hart’s assets.
Benedetto told the court that two victims have been informed regarding the change of plea hearing and that they have chosen not to participate in the hearing. Benedetto said the third victim has yet to be notified.
The indictment charged Hart, president of Curtwill Corp., which was doing business as Curtwill Enterprises, with two counts of mail fraud and three counts of fraud in foreign labor contracting.
According to the indictment filed last March, Hart hired alien workers from the Philippines, promising that the company would provide them work in the CNMI for 40 hours per week at a rate of $6.05 per hour, with “holiday pay and bonuses,” employer-arranged housing, medical and dental care, and transportation to and from the worksite.
Recruiters in the Philippines identified and recruited aliens to work for Curtwill and facilitated Hart’s contact with the alien workers.
Hart and the recruiters then told the alien workers they had to pay up to P65,000 in Philippine peso (about $1,380), in addition to a $750 processing fee, for the filing of I-129CW petitions on their behalf.
Under the CW-1 program, or CNMI-Only Transitional Worker Program, an employer who needs a worker and who wishes to fill a position with an alien worker must file an I-129CW petition.
