Hugo Diaz pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to harboring an illegal immigrant in exchange for the U.S. government dropping 14 charges related to money he made using undocumented workers.
Diaz faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, but sentencing was delayed. His wife, Blanca Diaz, is expected to make a similar plea today.
U.S. District Judge Randal Hall accepted the plea after an hourlong hearing explaining the rights Diaz was giving up and listening to testimony from an FBI agent. Diaz admitted in court to hiring an undocumented worker for his construction business and said he reported
the wages he paid the worker to the Internal Revenue Service.
Hall cautioned Diaz that he would likely be deported immediately after his release from prison because he is in the country illegally.
A federal indictment says the couple sheltered undocumented workers no later than January 2008 “for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain.”
Search warrants were served at their $1.7 million Evans home Nov. 4 by federal investigators.
The couple were charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and Hugo Diaz received 10 more counts of money laundering.
Seven others were arrested on a charge of entering the country illegally: Arturo Domiinquez-Suaste, Reyes Fredrico Lopez-Garcia, Jesus Vazquez-Trejo, Carlos Suarez Ortega, Rigoberto Loza-Marquez, Estaban Jarquin-Esteba and Heris Francisco Medina-Ramires.
Court records show no resolution in their cases.
Wow! It only took 1 undocumented worker(a.k.a. illegal) to boost business so he could build (mortgage free) $1.7 million house. Amazing!
Did I miss it in the article? Is Mrs. Blanca Diaz illegal alien also?
As I just learned, the plea is a technicallity, Diaz will do jail time, but more importantly, every thing he owns in this country has been seized and will be sold at auction. EVERYTHING.
Sort of like the Martinez restaurant with the million bucks in the stolen safe. The FBI said give us the money and we're even.
Austin....missed your show today but I hear this was a hot topic. Will our taxes pay for his imprisonment, medical care, etc. here in the US for a lengthy amount of time prior to his deportation? How long?
This guy is laughing at this dolt of a judge all the way back
home where the real bulk of his money has been accumulating
for YEARS as he ran circles around & pimped out soft headed
government officials exactly like this one.
Too beholden to the politically correct sensitivities of their liberal panty
waist masters on high to serve any useful purpose.
And after a nice long vacation he will come right back thru the same
revolving door of border he is now being "cautioned" about , ( I'll bet
he had a hard time keeping a straight face when "cautioned" with
that ) , only to come back and amass yet another fortune.
Anybody whio thinks they even scratched the surface of this guys
accumulated illegal wealth is clueless.
Freeradical...he has not been sentenced yet...but I doubt you will find many criminals who have to give up millions in property, do jail time, THEN be forced to live outside the States. He may come back, but if they catch him doing it...he will get more time. At his age...that is never a good thing.
Austin ,
what he gave up here amounts to little more than the frills of his daily
living , compared to the real bulk of his accumulated wealth.
This is nothing more than the cost of doing business to him.
Jail included.
This guy has been handling , & transporting haybale size bundles of
cash for years.
Any bank accounts here , were established long ago for the explicit
purposes of leading soft headed liberal government officials and all
others so inclined to believe they really got the goods on him.
SUCKERS!
You don't think this guy anticipated this day coming YEARS IN
ADVANCE ?
Really?
I agree with Free...only got "the goods" still here. Lots and lots and even more sent to Mexico over the years. So what if he looses his US worldly goods, serves some time in heated/air conditioned accommodations, gets meals and medical care (much better conditions than lots of Mexico). Then he's deported (again my tax money) to Mexico where the monies he's been sending there for years is waiting for him.
Authorities never questioned the local builders that used him since he was arrested. Not too much of an in-depth investigation if you ask me.
I know people who worked for some of the companies this joker put out of business by underbidding...as an illegal he should do time. It's a shame it'll be in a federal pen instead of a state pen.
Then afterwards the government ought to do what they did when they deported mafia boss Carlos Marcello in the early sixties...they dropped him off in the jungles of central America and basically said "figure it out"...
I road out to see his house and if I looked at the right one it looked like a hotel. Can you imagine what the electric and gas bills would be. At least $1500.00 or more per month and the taxes approx. $1250.00 per month just guessing on 1.7 million.
This is absolutely laughable. I know several men that work(ed) for a local plumbing company whose owner helped hide some of that money by taking loans and low bid jobs under Hugo. He must have taken most of his business lessons from him as well.
Conservative man, illegal immigrants aren't the only people we have to worry about putting local businesses under. That same plumbing company (that I can't name) will bid jobs for cost just to get a large quantity of work. Then this 'joker' turns around and lies to contractors, inspectors, and state officials. Him and his little lady should be right there in jail with him. Anyone that worked with Hugo knew he wasn't on the up and up. But...like always...it's these deceptive ones that get away with it since they can afford to pay people to turn their heads the other way. And that's okay. You know what they say about karma. That little old plumbing company is barely treading water, its owners have federal tax liens on all their property, and they have pending lawsuits. Tsk tsk tsk. Karma's catching up with the scum.....
Mr. Diaz has been sending money back to Mexico for years. So what if the government seized his worldly goods here? He is being, fed, clothed, housed in air conditioning/heated facilities (much better than lots of Mexico), medically taken care of with my tax dollars and then he will be sent back to his native country to enjoy the fruits of his ill-gotten labor.
Apparently the investigative agencies didn't find what they thought they would find and dropped the case. I know of not one single builder that has been questioned. Seems to me that is odd.
His family members have continued to live in the Grace Drive mansion and have been selling fixtures/furniture out of it for weeks now. Seems to me that is odd.
The others that were arrested have no court records per the newspaper. Seems to me that is odd.
There is nothing that can be done about money he sent back to Mexico, so it is spilt milk. Will he do it again? No way to tell, but the one thing he can't get back is TIME, and he ain't getting short shrift there. This is a white collar crime, and anything more than 3 or 4 years is above average.
Word is they will have 3 million when everything is liquidated. That may not be much of his total, but who else in this area has forfeited more?
There are dozens of local builders who have suffered the fate of what this guy was dealing. One of the more recent bulk-builders who has infested this area was known to use this character, keeping his own costs low. What can be done to correct that?
Well I guess we should all salute the authorities for taking about 25% of the supposedly illegal construction workers in the area. If you have any doubt...ride through some of the new subdivisions going up. Almost without exception the vehicles the siubs drive to work in do NOT have tags with Richmond or Columbia county tags....most are from the Atlanra area. Majority of the supplies being delivered come from the Atlanta area, too. Hugo was not and is not the provider of the majority of illegal workers in our area. Wake up, folks. These out of towners are NOT supporting our area and their inferior products sold at discounted prices are destroying our propery values.
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