Feds: Myrtle Beach hospitality company lied to, underpaid ‘perhaps hundreds’ of foreign workers
Grandeur Management, a Myrtle Beach-based hospitality consultant, is facing federal charges of visa fraud related to their dealings with foreign workers brought into the United States.
Three people have been arrested and dozens of victims identified after authorities say foreign workers in Myrtle Beach on work visas were scammed, underpaid and lied to about their working and living conditions.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina announced the indictment Thursday in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and the Myrtle Beach Police Department.
The company allegedly lied to foreign workers involved in the H-2B visa program in terms of the jobs they’d have, the amount they’d be paid and their living conditions. The workers came to Myrtle Beach under the premise that they would be working in the hospitality and service industries.
Rhett DeHart, acting U.S. Attorney in South Carolina, noted that they anticipate identifying many more victims, many of whom came from Jamaica and the Philippines. The investigation spanned several years, he said.
“We think there are many more (victims),” said Ed Roth, resident agent in charge for the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service. “Many more dozens at least, perhaps hundreds.”
Roth urged victims to come forward and speak to authorities via an email tip line, traffickingtips@state.gov. “We hope they won’t be hesitant to come forward,” he said.
Roth said there was a distinct possibility that more arrests would be made in the future, as the investigation continues.
Visa fraud, money laundering and wire fraud
Grandeur agents Raja Imran Younas, Syed Rehan Naqvi and employee Jessica Voight are charged with submitting fraudulent visa petitions and misrepresenting the positions, duties, rates of pay, and working and living conditions to which foreign workers would be subject.
Younas and Naqvi are accused of charging unlawful fees to visa-seekers. Victims wired the money to Younas and Naqvi, who personally collected the fees, according to authorities.
Despite promising full-time work to visa-seekers, Younas, Naqvi and Voight provided less than full-time work and consistently paid workers less than the amounts stated in their contracts and legal paperwork, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney General’s Office in South Carolina.
The news release states that Younas, Naqvi and Voight lied about the premises of the visa program, which is designed to provide a “cultural exchange” between the United States and the visa-seekers’ country of origin. Instead, “they were placed by their visa sponsors into inward facing housekeeping jobs, with no real opportunity for cultural exchange.”
Younas is the president and chief executive of Grandeur Management, Inc. and is also the registered agent for Premier Laundry and Linen Supply LLC, Cenet USA LLC, and a stakeholder in Hospitality Service Group LLC.
Each faces up to 20 years total in prison on all charges, according to the press release. The full indictment was not immediately available for public review as it was previously sealed and not yet viewable online as of Thursday afternoon despite a judge agreeing to unseal it.
Russell Long, listed as Younas’ attorney, was not immediately available for comment.
Previous allegations
Younas and Grandeur Management are no strangers to allegations of mistreating foreign employees.
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of State in 2016 on behalf of a group of J-1 students from the Dominican Republic and Jamaica that were allegedly misled by their sponsor before being placed with Grandeur Management.
Nicolas Florentino, one of the Dominican students from the complaint, previously told The Sun News through a translator that he was promised at least 32 hours of work per week, but Grandeur sent him to do varying tasks at other hotels for no more than 30 hours each week, which meant he could not make enough money to cover the costs of the program and living in Myrtle Beach.
Florentino got a second job, as many J-1 students do, at Taco Bell in order to break even by the end of the summer.
“I would not have come if I knew this is what I was going to be doing,” he said.
SPLC requested that the department order the sponsor reimburse the students’ registration fees and ban the sponsor and Grandeur Management from future participation in the program.
A pair of complaints alleging violations under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act were also filed against Grandeur and Younas in recent years.
Celeste Delfin and Noel Adia, both from the Philippines, filed separate suits in South Carolina and New York, respectively, alleging similar encounters with the Myrtle Beach company.
They were each already working legally on H-2B visas when they were recruited by Younas to come to South Carolina under the promise that he would put them to work and help them extend their visas, according to their complaints.
Delfin was quickly put to work as a housekeeping attendant at Coral Beach Resort and Westgate Myrtle Beach Ocean Resort, consistently working more than 40 hours per week for $8 per hour, but never receiving overtime pay, she alleges.
Adia, meanwhile, was asked to wait months without work before being moved to Manhattan to work as a housekeeping attendant, also without being paid overtime despite working more than 40 hours per week, his complaint states.
Both noted that any attempt to bring up issues with overtime pay resulted in threats against their immigration status.
“Instead of listening to Delfin and giving her what she lawfully deserved, Younas shouted at Delfin and called her an ingrate, and explicitly told her that if she did not stop complaining about her overtime wages, Younas would allegedly cancel or revoke the latest H-2B petition on her behalf,” one complaint states.
Adia’s complaint was dismissed after an undisclosed settlement was reached, while Delfin’s remains active in U.S. District Court.
This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 2:55 PM.
