Employment agency owner sentenced on federal charge

The owner of an employment agency was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release, the FBI said.

Chun Yan Lin, 44, of Doraville, was also required to forfeit $5,200 to the federal government. Federal officials expect that Lin will be deported after serving the sentence.

In October, Lin pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to transport and harbor illegal aliens. Federal authorities say Lin, who owned the Lucky employment agency in Chamblee, conspired to transport and provide jobs — mainly in the restaurant industry — to illegal aliens.

“Many of the workers in this case were underpaid for long work weeks and lived in substandard conditions, after being placed in locations in Atlanta and around the Southeast,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a news release. “Employment agencies that take advantage of the illegal employment trade will pay the price.”

A co-defendant, Shu Xian Jia, 54, of Doraville is scheduled to be sentenced on April 26 on a charge of transporting illegal aliens.

“The recruitment, harboring, and transportation of illegal aliens are very serious crimes,” Brock Nicholson, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Atlanta, said in a news release. “Those who put our nation’s security at risk to pocket a profit can expect to face similar serious consequences.”

Three restaurant owners connected to the case previously pleaded guilty to hiring illegal workers.

“Exploiting others for profit while many of these individuals were vulnerable because they were in a country they were unfamiliar with is despicable,” Brian D. Lamkin, special agent in charge, FBI Atlanta, said in a news release.