News

Aug 27, 2009

A 44-year-old suspected illegal immigrant from Costa Rica was indicted Wednesday on federal charges accusing him of recruiting other illegal immigrants to work for a longtime Reno electronics manufacturing and assembly corporation.

Luis Enrique Valverde was arrested Tuesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and charged in a complaint with two counts of encouraging and inducing an illegal immigrant to reside in the United States/aiding and abetting. He is being held at the Washoe County Jail without bail.

Valverde is accused of recruiting an illegal immigrant from Guatemala at a Sparks Burger King restaurant and an illegal immigrant from Mexico whom he met at church, to work for Vital Systems Corp. He had been employed there as a high-level manager and assembly-line foreman, according to the complaint against him. Valverde was employed there between 1999 and Dec. 4, 2008. It was not clear in the complaint why his employment ended.

Vital Systems owner Hamid Zaidi did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Authorities said the investigation is ongoing, and no one else had been charged in the case.

Between January and May, ICE agents said they verified the company had 81 employees and that 31 were not authorized to work in the country, the complaint said.

Valverde allegedly made a false claim that he was a U.S. citizen when he gained employment with the company.

According to the complaint, in August 2004, Valverde recognized the man from Guatemala in the Burger King as a customer when Valverde worked at a Reno restaurant. Valverde allegedly asked the man if he wanted a job, and if he had "fake papers." Valverde is accused of then helping the man fill out an application for employment knowingly using false personal information. The man lost his job in April after ICE agents served a criminal search warrant on the company.

The complaint accuses Valverde of approaching the Mexico-born woman he knew from church in 2006 and offering her a job with Vital Systems even though he knew she was not a legal U.S. citizen. He then allegedly helped her fill out employment paperwork. She lost her job in February, the complaint said, due to the slow economy.

A first appearance in Reno federal court had not been scheduled as of Wednesday for Valverde.

According to its Web site, Vital Systems has been in Reno since 1986, and employees on "significant teams" have worked there for nearly 20 years.