Broward men admit they cashed $7.4M in payroll for undocumented construction workers

July 02--A South Florida construction company that cashed $7.4 million worth of payroll checks in less than four months was purely a front for the construction industry to pay undocumented workers, according to federal court records.

Two Broward County men pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

The men charged a 3.5 percent fee or $259,000 between September 2014 and January 2015, according to court records.

Yamil Sanjurjo Cordero, 33, and Sandro Mendoza Alvarado, 35, face a maximum of five years in federal prison and fines of as much as $250,000 each when they are sentenced later this year.

Sanjurjo Cordero admitted he established a sub-contracting construction company, Sunrise All Contractor Corp., in July 2014 at a residential address in the 3600 block of Northwest 111th Avenue.

"Sunrise All Contractor did not perform any legitimate work and did not employ workers. Instead, Sunrise All Contractor was incorporated for the sole purpose of cashing checks for illegal workers who were employed in the construction industry," Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurice Johnson wrote in the plea agreement.

The two men admitted they accepted payroll checks supposedly issued to the contractor for work done and then cashed them at cash-checking stores all around Florida, including in the Orlando and Jacksonville areas.

Mendoza Alvarado was the go-between who accepted the checks and then met up with Sanjurjo Cordero at the check-cashing stores, authorities said. After the men deducted their fee, Mendoza Alvarado provided the cash to the construction industry companies to pay the illegal workers.

The South Florida-based construction industry companies that used the service were not identified in court records. It was unclear if they faced criminal or other penalties.

Both men were arrested on federal charges earlier this year and are being held at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami.

At the time of his arrest, Sanjurjo Cordero was serving 14 months in state prison for related prior convictions for workers' compensation fraud, money-laundering and fraud.

Investigators from the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud said Cordero opened the shell company to make money for himself and help contractors avoid paying workers' compensation premiums and payroll taxes.

Sanjurjo Cordero is represented by the Federal Public Defender's Office, which does not permit its lawyers to comment on cases. Mendoza Alvarado's lawyer, Philip Horowitz, said his client accepts responsibility for his crime and hopes for a lenient sentence.

pmcmahon@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @SentinelPaula

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