AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885

DECEMBER 7, 2007

TWO CONSPIRATORS PLEAD GUILTY IN SCHEME TO HARBOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

Scheme Resulted in Arrests of 69 Illegal Aliens in March 2007

Baltimore, Maryland - Michael Morgan, age 41, of Timonium, and Robert Lanahan, age 43, of Towson, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to harbor aliens in connection with the placement of temporary workers by Jones Industrial Network with client companies in the Baltimore area, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. A third defendant, Daniel Jones, age 41, of Glencoe-Sparks, Maryland, pleaded guilty yesterday to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful employment of aliens and was sentenced to forfeit all of his interest in Jones Industrial Network and another company, MOJO Holdings, LLC, which owns the building in which Jones Industrial Network is located. Morgan and Lanahan have also agreed to forfeit their interests in the two companies.

According to the plea agreements and court documents, from January 2004 through March 2007, Jones and Morgan were co-owners of Morgan-Jones, LLC, d/b/a Jones Industrial Network in Baltimore, a temporary employment services company that hired aliens and placed them as temporary employees at client companies. Lanahan was vice president in charge of sales. Frequently, the client companies hired the temporary employees as permanent employees after a trial period.

The defendants knew that Jones Industrial Network subscribed to two on-line services that conducted employee background screening. Jones and Morgan knew that permanent employees of Jones Industrial Network used these on-line services to check social security numbers when a client company intended to take a temporary employee as a permanent employee. In November 2006, Morgan and Lanahan were told that two temporary employees who were placed with a client company were using invalid social security numbers. These two temporary employees were then moved to another client company.

In about October and November 2006, Morgan and Lanahan were told that a number of temporary employees who were placed at a client company were illegal aliens. Morgan and Lanahan had a series of meetings with representatives of the company during which the representatives expressed concern about the immigration status of the Jones Industrial Network temporary employees. No action was taken by Jones Industrial Network to identify or fire these temporary employees.

On March 29, 2007, ICE agents arrested 69 Jones Industrial Network employees who were illegal aliens at various client companies. All of the illegal aliens had used false documents to obtain employment.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles has scheduled sentencings for Morgan and Lanahan on March 3, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. and February 19, 2008 at 9:30 a.m., respectively.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the Immigration and Customs Enforcement for its investigative work. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard C. Kay and Paul Budlow, who are prosecuting the case.