Key West hotel housekeeping manager sentenced in labor staffing kickback scheme
The former housekeeping manager of a Key West hotel was sentenced to prison on Friday for her role in what federal prosecutors say was a kickback scheme involving hiring staff not authorized to work in the United States.
U.S. Southern District Court of Florida Judge Donald. L. Graham sentenced Natalia Vasylivna Kasyanenko to eight months in prison, as well as two years of supervised release, and ordered her to pay the government more than $1 million in restitution, according to court documents.
She had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to “harbor aliens” and induce them to remain in the United States.
Kasyanenko is accused of hiring foreign workers between 2009 and 2020 who were not authorized to be employed in the country through several labor staffing firms, including Phoenix ABD Services Inc., which was owned and operated by her husband, Mikus Berzins and their sons Igor Kasyanenko and Roman Riabov.
Igor Kasyanenko was a decorated officer with the Key West Police Department at the time of the alleged scheme, having served between 2014 and 2021, according to the city.
In exchange for hiring the workers, Natalia Vasylivna Kasyanenko received kickbacks from the staffing companies, according to her charging document.
Although people hired worked for the hotel, they remained on the payroll of the staffing companies, prosecutors say.
None of the court documents on file name the hotel where Vasylivna Kasyanenko managed housekeeping staff. But, that establishment, as well as other Key West hotels, bars, restaurants and other businesses, used the staffing firms to avoid responsibility for having to withhold federal income or employment taxes.
Igor Kasyanenko, Riabov and Berzins pleaded guilty in 2022 to paying workers on their payroll without withholding federal employment and income tax and not filing with the Internal Revenue Service requisite tax forms. They were sentenced 22 and 18 months in prison, respectively. Phoenix employee Andrejs Kozlov pleaded guilty to the same charges and received the same sentence.
Six other staffing companies were involved in similar schemes in Key West recently, and their respective owners have since been prosecuted and sentenced to prison time.
Mykhaylo Chugay, owner of General Labor Solutions, Liberty Specialty Services, LLC, and Paradise Choice Cleaning, LLC, was convicted in June 2022 on charges he hired unauthorized workers and violated federal tax laws after losing a jury trial. A judge sentenced him to 24 years in prison.
Batyr Myatiev, owner of American Hospitality and Golden Sands, pleaded guilty to those charges in March and was sentenced to 32 months in prison.
