Accused companies have judicial connection

Two corporations charged in an alleged plot to supply undocumented workers to Keppel AmFELS, an oilrig manufacturer based at the Port of Brownsville, are apparently run by a state district judge.

Judge Leonel Alejandro, who is presiding judge of the 357th District Court in Brownsville, has not been charged in the case, but he said he helped start Port Fabricators, which provided workers to AmFELS.

The two companies behind Port Fabricators, CPEP Inc. and LAMC Inc., and former employees Rolando Villanueva, 31, and Ernesto Casas, 33, of Brownsville, were named in a 15-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Brownsville earlier this month.

Alejandro is the president of both CPEP and LAMC, and the public record reflects he was AmFELS’s attorney before taking his seat on the court in January 2003.

“Several years ago, I helped develop Port Fabricators at the Port of Brownsville and still have some involvement with the company,” Alejandro said in a prepared statement to The Herald. “The company has continuously cooperated throughout the process. It would not be appropriate to comment further given the preliminary information we have at this time.”

The corporations, Villanueva and Casas are charged with a combination of crimes, including conspiracy to produce, sell or transfer fraudulent employment documents to the workers, hiring more than 10 undocumented workers, accepting fraudulent documents, transferring fraudulent documents and using the identification of others.

The trial is scheduled to start in July.

The indictments concluded a three-year investigation, dubbed Operation Labor Lease, involving Immigration and Custom Enforcement, the Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Defense, Texas Department of Public Safety and Customs and Border Protection, public records show.

The indictment alleges that the corporations, Villanueva and Casas provided undocumented workers with fraudulent employment documents to the shipyard and oil-rig building business from 1999 through 2006.

“Between January 2002 and September 2004, AmFELS has paid Port Fabricators, as a result of labor lease contracts, $30,382,250,” the indictment states.

During this time, the corporations and the former employees hired 1,041 labor lease workers to fulfill the contract with AmFELS, and of these, 624 allegedly provided invalid proof of eligibility for employment, records show.

Also during that time, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded AmFELS a $73 million contract for the modification of an oil-drilling platform to support the Department of Defense’s missile defense system.

The inquiry began in 2004 when search warrants were issued on the two corporations and several other businesses at the Port of Brownsville.

In a prepared statement released earlier this month, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle noted, if convicted, Villanueva and Casas could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for each count of transferring or accepting a fraudulent document.

The statement noted that each count of conspiracy or hiring undocumented immigrants carries a five-year maximum sentence. Each count of aggravated identity theft mandates a two-year sentence that would be served consecutive to any other sentence.

CPEP and LAMC, the labor lease corporations, face potential fines of $500,000 for each count if conviction. Both corporations face 13 counts combined, court records show.

“This has been under investigation for some time, and (Port Fabricators) has always cooperated with this investigation,” said attorney Eric Reed, who represents the corporations. “It’s very early (in the court process) and we will take a look at the matter and determine the best course.”

Reed, with the Houston-based law firm of Rhodes & Vela, said that Alejandro “has always encouraged the cooperation of the company and continues to do so.”

“It’s very early on,” Reed said. “We will take a good look at the charges and keep a dialogue with the government to better understand what the accusations are. These are merely accusations. I’m optimistic about the outcome.”

The corporations also are represented by Trey Martinez III of Brownsville and John Patrick Smith of Houston.

Villanueva’s attorney, Edward A. Stapleton III of Brownsville, on Saturday said his client “told me that he is not guilty of anything.”

“He protests his innocence,” Stapleton said. “My client is a good family man and a hard-working pleasant man.”

He said a state district judge’s possible involvement in the case “doesn’t impact my client one way or another.”

“I think that the prosecutors involved in this case would not treat my client unfairly or more fairly either way because of that factor,” he said. “The case will stand or fall on its own without any relation of who may or not own those corporations.”

Casas’ attorney, Irvin Sheldon Weisfeld of Brownsville, declined to comment.

BND Vice President Luigi Cristiano, who is Alejandro’s nephew, also owns labor lease corporations with wife Theresa Cristiano but did not return a telephone call for comment. Theresa Cristiano also serves as Alejandro’s campaign treasurer.

The Cristiano corporations share the same address with Alejandro’s indicted corporations, either at 2025 Central Blvd. Suite A or B, The Herald found as reported in 2004 and subsequently.

CPEP’s president is Alejandro, and his wife is also listed as a director. LAMC’s president is Alejandro, while BND’s Luigi Cristiano’s mother-in-law, Amelia Ortiz, recently acted as the secretary of the corporation, public records show. Ortiz also is listed as the registered agent of CPEP.

BND’s Cristiano in 2004 told The Herald that his uncle, Alejandro, and his mother-in-law, Ortiz, “have the highest ethical standards and we just have to see what is going on.”

Alejandro declined to respond to questions, including any possible connection with BND’s Cristiano’s lease labor company.

Reed said that he has “little knowledge, if any, about Luigi Cristiano’s company.”

“I would be surprised if there is any connection,” he said. “This is certainly beyond the scope of the case, and I don’t know enough of (Cristiano’s) business.”