Two Men Plead Guilty To Defrauding The United States Regarding The Immigration, Visa, And Employment Laws

Baltimore, Maryland – Asher Sharvit, age 29, formerly of New York, New York, and Oren Sharvit, age 28, formerly of Dover, Delaware, pleaded guilty yesterday to recruiting and hiring aliens for their Maryland business for purposes of profit.  U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Asher Sharvit to 36 months and Oren Sharvit to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for the offense.

Rona Zhfani, who was indicted with them, has pleaded not guilty.

The guilty pleas were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Special Agent in Charge Edwin Guard of U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), Washington Field Office; Acting Special Agent in Charge Cardell T. Morant of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; and Special Agent in Charge Robin Blake of Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Washington, D.C. Regional Office.

According to the defendants’ plea agreements, Asher Sharvit, Oren Sharvit, and Rona Zhfani operated multiple businesses in Maryland and elsewhere, including Unlimited Treasures. Inc. Unlimited 13 Corp., Deja Vu Cosmetics, and BH Distribution Group LLC (collectively ''Unlimited'').  Deja Vu sold wholesale cosmetics with an emphasis on products originating from the Dead Sea region of Israel. Unlimited purchased product for resale from Deja Vu. The Defendants' Companies often used the trade names Deja Vu and BioXage when opening stores and selling products.

They knowingly agreed to recruit, hire, employ, house, and transport aliens who did not have lawful authority to work in the United States.

The defendants understood that the United States required foreign citizens desiring to work in the United States to obtain specific authorization and provide truthful information in support of their requests.  Nevertheless, they intentionally hired aliens lacking lawful authority and assisted some of them in obtaining visitor visas and visitor visa extensions.

Pursuant to their plea agreements, the defendants admitted that the conspiracy lasted from approximately 2008 to 2017, and was motivated by commercial gain, i.e. maximizing the revenue and profit of Unlimited.  The co-conspirators recruited aliens overseas to travel to the United States on visitor visas to work, caused the employees to work in the United States without lawful authority, and encouraged and assisted some of the aliens in making materially false statements in visa applications, visa extensions and other documents required by the immigration laws.  The co-conspirators paid the aliens on a commission basis, with no deductions for taxes, social security and other required employee deductions. 

The defendants admitted that the conspiracy involved the unlawful employment of more than 100 aliens who lacked the authority to work in the United States and involved the transportation or harboring of a minor.  Asher Sharvit further admitted that he obstructed justice in February 2017 by participating in the destruction of Unlimited documents.  In an effort to destroy evidence of the conspiracy, Asher Sharvit sent messages with another Unlimited employee and co-conspirator, resulting in the destruction of more than 25 boxes of materials at a commercial shredding location. 

The court has set a trial date for Rona Zhfani in March 2019.

United States Attorney Robert K. Hur commended the DSS, HSI, and DOL-OIG for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Hur thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Harry Gruber, and Michael Cunningham, who are prosecuting the federal case.

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