former agriprocessors human resource employee sentenced for helping hire undocumented workers
Contact: Peter Deegan
A woman who helped hire illegal aliens at Agriprocessors, Inc., in Postville, Iowa, was sentenced today to one year of probation.
Karina Freund, age 31, from Fayette, Iowa, received the sentence following a December 10, 2008, guilty plea to one misdemeanor count of aiding and abetting a pattern or practice of hiring undocumented aliens.
According to the charge, Freund aided the unlawful employment of aliens knowing the aliens were not authorized to work in the United States. Information previously disclosed in court identified Freund as a human resource department employee at Agriprocessors in Postville.
Freund was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States Magistrate Judge Jon Stuart Scoles. Freund was sentenced to one years’ probation. A special assessment of $10 was also imposed.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Peter Deegan, C.J. Williams, and Matthew Cole, and the investigation has been led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Prior assistance was provided by the United States Marshals Service, United States Postal Inspections Service, Iowa Department of Public Safety, Iowa Department of Transportation, Federal Protective Service, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations, United States Department of Labor, Public Health Service, United States Department of Agriculture, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Drug Enforcement Administration, Waterloo Police Department, and Postville Police Department.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 08-1324.
