Judge gavel

Last week, the operator of several Key West, Florida, labor staffing companies — including PSEB Specialty Service Inc., Perfect Service Excellent Benefits Services Inc., Starline Hospitality Inc., Norbert Janitorial Service Inc., E.S.F. Services Inc. and Expert Services F.S. Inc. — was sentenced to four years in prison for tax and immigration-related crimes according to the United States Attorney's office.

According to court documents and statements made in court, at various times between January 2011 and January 2021, Petr Sutka and others helped run a series of labor staffing companies that facilitated the employment in hotels, bars and restaurants in Key West and elsewhere of non-resident aliens who were not authorized to work in the United States. These labor staffing companies did not withhold federal income taxes and Social Security and Medicare taxes from these workers’ wages and did not report the wages to the IRS.

In addition to his prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez ordered Sutka to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $3,551,423.84 in restitution to the United States.

Sutka’s co-conspirators Vasil Khatiashvili and Zdenek Strnad are scheduled to be sentenced on April 22. HSI Miami and IRS-CI, Miami Field Office investigated the case. Additional details on the case can be found here.