Business Owners; Brothers Sentenced for Employing Unauthorized Aliens

ROCHESTER, N.Y.-- U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Geoffrey Lechner, 52, of Brighton, N.Y., and his brother, Douglas Lechner, 51, of Rochester, N.Y., who were convicted of employing unauthorized aliens, were fined $3,000 each by U.S. Magistrate Judge Marian W. Payson.

            Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa J. Miller, who handled the case, stated that the brothers are the principal owners of Clover Lawn Care. The defendants hired two or more aliens to work at the lawn care and landscaping company despite knowing that they were not authorized to work in the United States. The matter came to the attention of law enforcement in June 2012, following an accident involving a Clover Lawn Care vehicle driven by four employees in Brighton, N.Y.

The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James C. Spero, Agents of the United States Border Patrol under the direction of Assistant Patrol Agent in Charge Michael Werthman, and Officers of the Brighton Police Department, under the direction of Chief Mark T. Henderson.