Illegal alien boss failed to pay workers comp

From the NY Times:

The owner of a Queens asbestos-removal company has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for failing to pay $1.6 million in required workers’ compensation premiums by saying that he had just one employee when he often had dozens, prosecutors announced on Tuesday.

Andrew T. Baxter, the interim United States attorney for the Northern District of New York, said the business owner, Chong-mun Chae, a South Korean, would be deported after serving his sentence of 46 months because he was an illegal immigrant.

Prosecutors said that when Mr. Chae applied for workers’ compensation policies, he often falsely claimed that he had just one employee, who worked as a receptionist. As a result, insurance companies charged him far lower rates than if they had known the true number of his employees and the hazardous nature of their work.

Mr. Chae sought to avoid getting caught by repeatedly changing the name of his company, prosecutors said. Its names included Charlie Brown Services, Top Ace Services and K-One Service.

Mr. Chae, 71, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax fraud, and was sentenced on Thursday in United States District Court in Binghamton.

State officials said Mr. Chae worked on asbestos-removal projects throughout the state and often used crews of Korean immigrants.

Choe runs on anti-American platform

From the NY Post:

The comments of John Choe, one of six candidates trying to succeed Councilman John Liu in Flushing, were reported in the Workers World newspaper.

"Korea is at the front line of the liberation struggles against imperialism," Choe was quoted as telling a conference here in May 2006 on "Preparing for the Rebirth of the Global Struggle for Socialism."

"From the very beginning, when the US intervened and occupied Korea, the Korean people have been resisting and struggling. And I urge all of you here to help us in our dark days trying to win back freedom and independence from the United States and its military."

Choe's position poses something of a problem for Liu and the Queens Democratic Party, which has endorsed him.

Liu, now running for comptroller, insisted Choe, his former chief of staff, was being stigmatized by "McCarthyism."

"There's no way he made those comments, no way," declared Liu, not aware of Choe's admission [that he had].