A nationally based pallet management service company has agreed to pay $20.7 million in civil forfeitures and penalties over four years for employing illegal workers at its plant.

            A Shrewsbury man, Michael Ames, the former General Manager of the Westborough IFCO plant, pled guilty to unlawful employment of undocumented workers in October.

            In exchange for his guilty plea in October, Ames admitted he engaged in conspiracy to hire and continue to employ aliens who were not permitted to be in the country at IFCO.

            According to a statement from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the settlement includes $2.6 million in back pay and penalties relating to IFCO's overtime violations and $18.1 million in civil forfeitures that will be available to support future law enforcement activities.

            The government began investigating IFCO, the largest pallet management services company in the United States, in February 2005 after the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement was tipped that illegal laborers at the Albany, NY, plant were ripping up their W-2 forms.

            Agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a work site enforcement action at 40 plants in 26 states, including Westborough, resulting in the detention of 1,182 illegals working in the 40 plants.

            The investigation documented several IFCO managers, including Ames, harbored and transported illegal workers, and encouraged and induced them to remain in the United States as pallet workers, according to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

            Between 2003 and 2006, up to 6,000 illegal aliens worked at IFCO pallet plants throughout the country, including the Westborough plant located on Brigham Street, according to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

            IFCO owns 144 plants in the country and employs more than 3,500 people in the country.

            The settlement also includes a compliance and reporting system, designed to prevent the employment of illegal workers at IFCO plants in the future and the company will take remedial actions in hiring, such as using a screening program for all new hires and will verify the social security numbers of all IFCO employees throughout the Social Security Administration.

            "This settlement accomplishes the government's objective of deterring employers who might seek to subvert the immigration laws of this country," Acting United States Attorney Andrew Baxter said in a press release. "The agreement severely punishes IFCO for its serious immigration and employment violations, but also allows the corporation to continue its operations, so that its lawful employees and innocent shareholders do not suffer the consequences of a business failure in this economy."

            Nine IFCO managers have pled guilty for employing illegal aliens at their plant and four IFCO managers have been indicted on felony charges for hiring illegal aliens and are currently awaiting trial.