BOSTON — A Massachusetts father and son who own two Woburn restaurants have been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to smuggle migrants into the United States from Brazil, the U.S. Attorney said.
Jesse James Moraes, 67, and Hugo Giovanni Moraes, 45, both of Woburn and the owners of Taste of Brazil—Tudo Na Brasa and The Dog House Bar and Grill, were sentenced in federal court in Boston, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement Friday. Another man was also sentenced in connection with a money laundering conspiracy.
The conspiracy involved recruiting undocumented migrants in Brazil to come to the U.S. through Mexico without authorization in exchange for fees of between $12,000 and $22,000 per person, Foley said.
Jesse Moraes was sentenced to eight months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, Foley said.
Hugo Moraes was sentenced to five months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, with the first five months in home confinement, and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine.
U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs handed down their sentences.
In November, both father and son pleaded guilty to “conspiring to encourage and induce an alien to come to, enter, and reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law, for commercial advantage or private financial gain,” Foley said.
Jesse Moraes also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder the proceeds of the migrant smuggling conspiracy.
The migrants were encouraged to make fraudulent claims of asylum and familial relationship (e.g., parent and minor child) in the United States and were given fraudulent information about U.S. points of contact to give to immigration authorities when they were caught in the United States, Foley said.
Once migrants were in the U.S., Jesse Moraes and Hugo Moraes helped them secure long-term housing, including in apartments owned by relatives of Hugo Moraes.
The father and son arranged for some of the migrants to work at Tudo Na Brasa/Taste of Brazil and The Dog House Bar and Grill and paid the migrants either entirely or partly in cash, unless and until the migrants obtained identification documents, at which point they would be paid at least partly by check, Foley said.
The two men encouraged the migrants working for them to obtain fake identification documents and referred them to another man, Marcos Chacon Gil, a/k/a “Marquito,” to obtain such fake identification documents, Foley said.
The co-conspirators agreed that some of the migrants could pay off some of their smuggling fee once they reached the U.S., which they did by direct payment, having their wages withheld, or by collection by relatives and other associates within and outside the U.S., Foley said.
The money laundering conspiracy to which Jesse Moraes was sentenced involved transferring funds into and out of the U.S. “with the intent to promote the migrant smuggling conspiracy and conducting financial transactions with the proceeds of the smuggling conspiracy that were designed to conceal the ownership and control of the proceeds,” prosecutors said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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