Fresh Mark Incorporated, a Northeast Ohio-based company that supplies meat products to all 50 states and more than 20 countries, entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The company paid a nearly $4 million penalty for a hiring manager’s involvement in an identity theft scheme and subsequent obstruction of justice.
Between 2013 and 2018, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents arrested multiple Fresh Mark employees illegally in the United States who used stolen identities to gain employment with the company. According to court documents, Yelwin Omar Munoz-Solis, 43, of Salem, Ohio, was a hiring manager at Fresh Mark’s Salem facility. He conspired with others to steal the identities of U.S. citizens and give them to job applicants at Fresh Mark’s meat processing plants. He then certified I-9 documents, which are used to verify identity and employment eligibility in the United States. Munoz-Solis was charged and subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and making false statements on immigration forms submitted to HSI. On June 19, 2018, Homeland Security Special Agents served search warrants at Fresh Mark’s processing facilities in Salem, Massillon, and Canton, Ohio. Agents detained 146 migrants working at the facility who were in the United States without legal status. Approximately 30 of those individuals were later charged with immigration violations in federal court. The raid on the three facilities involved nearly 100 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and agents, Customs and Border Protection officers, and Border Patrol agents. It was the largest worksite enforcement operation conducted during the first Trump administration. Shortly after the worksite raid, HSI Special Agent in Charge in Michigan and Ohio told reporters, “Unlawful employment is one of the key magnets drawing illegal aliens across our borders.”,