Fort Pierce Building Company Sentenced in Federal Court for Employing Undocumented Workers

A federal judge Thursday ordered a Fort Pierce building firm to serve two years of probation after the company pleaded guilty last month to having undocumented workers on the payroll.

The punishment imposed against Martinez Builders Supply, which does business on the Treasure Coast as East Coast Truss, relates to an Oct. 28 felony conviction of “conspiring to harbor aliens by means of employment,” court records show.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon told East Coast Truss president Carlos Martinez, 78, that the company must also pay a fine of $100,000 after it had already forfeited $450,000 to the government as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

The company had faced a maximum punishment of five years of probation and a fine of $500,000, according to court records.

Plea documents show that East Coast Truss and a former employee, Kelly Yanira Del Valle, 43, admitted that several of the company’s officers and employees, including Del Valle, “conspired to harbor undocumented immigrants by means of employment from June 2018, through August 2021, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.

East Coast Truss, at 5285 Saint Lucie Boulevard, is a privately owned roof truss manufacturing company founded in 1968 that designs and constructs wood trusses for residential and commercial buildings, according to the company’s website.

On Aug. 29, Del Valle pleaded guilty of conspiring to harbor aliens by means of employment, filing false tax returns and aiding the filing of false tax returns, court records show.

Cannon sentenced her to 13 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. As part of her guilty pleas, Del Valle also agreed to pay a $100,00 forfeiture judgment and another $100,146 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

She had faced a maximum sentence of 16 years. 

What preceded East Coast Truss facing a criminal charge?  

Federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations began looking into East Coast Truss in March 2018 following an audit that determined the company employed dozens of workers “that were aliens not authorized to work in the U.S,” agents noted in a federal criminal complaint.

On March 12, 2018, HSI agents instructed East Coast Truss to produce Form I-9s for all of its employees, which are used to verify the identity and employment authorization of people hired in the United States.

Four days later, after investigators identified 43 of 150 workers who were not authorized to work in the U.S., the company was warned "it could be subject to criminal charges” if it continued to employ undocumented workers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Porter told Cannon Thursday that East Coast Truss “found themselves in a pickle” after HSI agents found about 30% of its workers were undocumented immigrants.

The company, he said, faced either losing 30% of its workforce and potentially not fulfilling their contract obligations or finding a way to shift the undocumented workers off the books.

That’s when Del Valle proposed creating an “unlawful” payroll firm to compensate laborers employed by the company, Porter said.

“That idea originated with Kelly Del Valle; however, he (Carlos Martinez) took the bait,” Porter told Cannon. “The conspiracy lasted for about three years.”

'Conspiring to harbor aliens by means of employment'

Court documents show in June 2018, Del Valle established a payroll firm called Hollys Services to pay East Coast Truss employees who were not authorized to work in the United States.  

She created a second company called Quality Control, “for the same purpose as Hollys Services, that is, to conceal, harbor, and shield aliens who worked at ECT from detection by law enforcement,” court documents stated.

On Aug. 6, 2021, federal agents served a search warrant at East Coast Truss headquarters and found 28 of the 58 employees present to be undocumented immigrants.

In a sentencing memo, Porter noted that between June 2018 and July 2021, East Coast Truss directed at least $3.3 million in money transfers to bank accounts controlled by Del Valle “to cover the payroll expenses for the aliens who worked for (East Coast Truss) but were purportedly employed by Holly Services and Quality Control.”

East Coast Truss in August was criminally charged with "conspiring to harbor aliens by means of employment," in violation of federal law.

During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Porter recommended that East Coast Truss be sentenced to a year of probation but not pay a fine after the company had already forfeited $450,000.

Martinez’s lawyer, Frederick “Rick” Hutchinson, of West Palm Beach, told Cannon his client agreed with the sentencing recommendation.

Cannon, though, pushed Porter to explain why the government wasn’t recommending a fine, which was in her discretion to impose.

Porter noted that East Coast Truss had pleaded guilty, had implemented a compliance program that kept all workers on the firm’s payroll and had paid $450,000 to the court – the amount gained from the criminal conduct.

“They have developed an effective compliance plan so this won’t happen again,” he said.

Cannon appeared unconvinced.

She said East Coast Truss had hidden “not an insignificant number of illegal workers” and the forfeiture amount wasn’t a punishment, in that it represented the amount the company earned from employing undocumented workers.

Hutchinson told Cannon “there has been extreme remorse,” and stressed that East Coast Truss provides jobs in the community and worked with the government to resolve the criminal case.

If Cannon were to impose a fine, Hutchinson said a fair amount should not exceed $50,000.

He described Carlos Martinez as an “elderly, sick gentleman who came from Cuba as a child.”

“There’s been tears shed,” Hutchinson added.

Martinez, who said he moved to the United States from Cuba at age 15, expressed remorse when he briefly addressed Cannon.

“I’d like to apologize for all this trouble,” Martinez said, dressed in a plaid shirt and tie, dark slacks and seated in a wheelchair with a trio of attorneys at his side.

“I am eternally grateful for what this country has done for me,” Martinez continued. “I apologize.”

Tentlogix federal prosecution

This is the second Fort Pierce-based company in recent years convicted in federal court of paying undocumented workers off the books.

In 2019, three officials with the former tent rental business Tentlogix pleaded guilty to felony charges related to employing undocumented workers.

A two-count federal indictment — which followed a 2018 federal raid of Tentlogix — accused the company and three top managers of conspiring to create a payroll firm in March 2017 “for the purpose of concealing, harboring and shielding aliens employed by Tentlogix from detection by law enforcement.”

Thirty people in the country illegally were removed from the business when a criminal search warrant was served at Tentlogix, west of U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce on March 28, 2018.

In 2016, Homeland Security Investigation agents had warned Tentlogix they had identified 96 employees "who appeared to be aliens not authorized to work in the United States."