All seven defendants are accused of conspiring, between 2003 and April 2006, to harbor illegal aliens employed by IFCO and to encourage and induce those illegal aliens to reside in the United States. Defendants Tiesman, Gines, Ross, and Murda are charged in a related conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration by submitting false payroll-related information to those agencies, and to facilitate the misuse of social security numbers by IFCO employees. Defendants Davidson, Hoskins, Soto Castillo, and Murda are named in two counts with substantive violations of harboring illegal aliens employed by IFCO and encouraging and inducing those illegal aliens to reside in the United States. Soto Castillo is charged with transportation of particular illegal aliens in three substantive counts. Each offense set forth in the seven-count indictment carries maximum penalties of up to five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

Today's superseding indictment stems from the government's investigation of illegal immigration and employment-related practices at IFCO's pallet management services plants, which procure, recondition and distribute wood pallets. The investigation began following a tip to ICE in February 2005, that illegal alien laborers at the Albany IFCO plant were observed ripping up their W-2 forms.