St. Charles man pleads guilty in scheme to hire undocumented workers

A St. Charles man was sentenced in federal court Monday for assisting a factory owner with the hiring of undocumented workers.

Sergio Badani, 51, used his role as vice president of operations for a large Chicago staffing company to conceal the identities of 17 workers from the federal government, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Officials said the workers were identified by law enforcement as undocumented during a factory audit but the factory owners assured authorities the workers had been fired, the news release said. Later, the factory owners worked with Badani to rehire them with fake identification, authorities allege.

Badani confessed to knowing about the scheme and said he assisted in concealing the information while his company continued to bring in more than $1 million in fees from the factory owners, the news release said. He also admitted that he received a cut of the profit from the contract in the form of bonuses.

Badani pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit alien harboring for purposes of commercial advantage, the release said. U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis sentenced Badani to two years' probation and fined him $15,000, officials said.

Four employees from the staffing agency's manufacturing client, KSO MetalFab Inc. in Streamwood, were previously charged in federal court with knowingly hiring and harboring undocumented workers, officials said. They pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.