Streamwood Company Operators Charged With Illegal Hiring

CHICAGO, IL — Four operators of a suburban Chicago manufacturing company have been charged in federal court stemming from accusations of knowingly hiring and harboring undocumented workers, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Elgin residents Dora Kuzelka, 81, Kari Kuzelka, 56, and Keith Kuzelka, 58, and Chicago resident Kenneth Kuzelka, 62, are accused of knowingly hiring at least 18 undocumented workers at KSO MetalFab Inc., a sheet metal fabrication company in Streamwood, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, the release said.

The Kuzelkas are charged with one count of knowingly harboring an undocumented immigrant and one count of knowingly engaging in a pattern or practice of hiring undocumented immigrants, stated as "illegal aliens," in the release.

Keith Kuzelka left the company last year, while the three other Kuzelkas continue to serve in executive management positions, the complaint states, according to the release.

Dora Kuzelka, Kenneth Kuzelka and Kari Kuzelka were arrested Friday morning, while Keith Kuzelka self-surrendered to authorities that afternoon, officials said, adding that all four defendants made appearances in federal court in Chicago Friday afternoon and were ordered released on recognizance bonds.

According to the release, the complaint and arrests were announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and James M. Gibbons, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

According to the complaint, HSI’s Chicago office carried out a civil audit of KSO MetalFab in 2017 and determined that three-dozen of the company’s 67 employees were suspected of using fraudulent work authorization documents to verify their eligibility for employment. HSI served the company with a written notice of the suspected violations, but the company responded by claiming it had let go of the 36 the identified employees, according to the release.

The complaint also said KSO MetalFab later re-hired at least 18 of the previously terminated workers through a staffing agency, according to the release, adding that the charges accuse KSO MetalFab of instructing the workers to go to the staffing agency so that they could return to the company after the audit. Many of the workers used the same names that they previously used before the audit, the complaint said, according to the release.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheila Finnegan scheduled status hearings for the Kuzelkas on Oct. 29, according to the release.