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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (15994)	11/13/2003 8:12:58 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793671

Jeweler Was Catalyst for Wal-Mart Raid PROBE OF HIRING BEGAN IN POCONO TOWN OF HONESDALE, PA. By DANIELA GERSON Staff Reporter of the NY Sun A Brooklyn jeweler was the catalyst for what could be the most extensive probe of illegal hiring practices in American retail history, culminating in a 21-state raid of 60 Wal-Mart stores last month. Federal agents began the five-year probe in the small Pocono Mountains town of Honesdale, Pa., after a local police sergeant informed them he had apprehended a young Russian immigrant on burglary charges. The man worked as a cleaner at a local Wal-Mart store. The Honesdale police chief, Thomas Frisk, blames the late-1990s emergence of an Eastern European underclass of workers in his town on Brooklyn jeweler Jerry Zygnerski. “It seemed like everyone that we had dealings with had some connection back to him,” Mr. Frisk said, noting that he owned “really run-down mobile homes” and a building that housed Europeans. In October of 1998, Chief Frisk, who was then a sergeant, signed a warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Blinov, an 18year-old Wal-Mart employee, for breaking into the home of two immigrants who lived in a home owned by Mr. Zygnerski. When Chief Frisk informed the INS that he had found an illegal Wal-Mart employee, they told him they were working to crack down on a European ring that was illegally bringing undocumented workers to America. “When the INS was here investigating they lead me to believe that [Mr. Zygnerski] was part of this organization that was bringing people in from [Eastern] Europe. As they explained it to me there was some sort of organized ring overseas, employing them at Wal-Marts,” Mr. Frisk said. “The INS was working on that and we just happened to pick [Mr. Blinov] up for a burglary.” Mr. Zygnerski, 47, speaking from his Brooklyn home, denied playing a part in any organization providing Wal-Mart with European workers. He said that after he bought property across the street from his sister’s home in Honesdale, a friend running a cleaning company contacted him and asked if he would house the workers. “He asked if I had a place for these people to live and they’re working at Wal-Mart,” said Mr. Zygnerski, a native of Poland. END OF PART ONE