BATON ROUGE, LA - United States Attorney Walt Green announced today that LINDA D. WHITE, age 64, of Livingston, Louisiana, pled guilty yesterday before U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick to altering and falsifying records in a federal investigation, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1519. As a result of her conviction, WHITE faces a potential prison term, as well as a significant fine and restitution to her victims.
WHITE operated a company called Linda White & Associates, which, from 2010 until 2013, represented hundreds of agricultural employers seeking to hire temporary foreign workers using H-2A visas. Before hiring foreign workers, United States Department of Labor rules require that the agricultural employers attempt to hire domestic workers by placing newspaper advertisements. As owner and operator of Linda White & Associates, WHITE received fees from her clients to place the ads; in many cases, however, WHITE kept the fees without placing any ads. The advertising fees ranged from $450 to $675 per client.
The U.S. Department of Labor eventually developed concerns regarding WHITE and her business and initiated an audit. In response to the audit, instead of truthfully admitting her scheme, WHITE falsified numerous documents and submitted the false documents to the Department of Labor. These documents included, for instance, false advertisement receipts that represented that WHITE had placed advertisements on behalf of her agricultural clients when, in fact, she had not done so.
U.S. Attorney Green stated: “Defrauding clients and attempting to cover up the fraud during a federal audit is a quick path to becoming a federal felon. We will continue to aggressively pursue those who seek to defraud and obstruct the important oversight missions by the U.S. Department of Labor and other federal agencies."
This investigation was handled by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This matter is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney J. Brad Casey.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
