Two years ago, the Federal Prosecutors’ Office charged David Carslake, manager of Frosty Treats, a company that sells ice cream from trucks, with violating the law regulating the relocation of persons across national borders. The manager promised several students from Russia good wages, but, in fact, cruelly exploited them and paid them very little.
On June 4, in the Kansas City Federal Court, the assistant federal prosecutor Cynthia Cordes announced that the prosecutor's office and the accused had reached an agreement that resulted in the most serious charges being dropped. As a result, he received a suspended sentence, a $5,000 fine, and a five-year ban on using foreign workers to drive ice cream trucks. In addition, Frosty Treats agreed to pay six Russian students $47,000 in compensation and suspend for two years its participation in a program that hires foreign workers.
Carslake admitted his guilt in “impeding the mail” – he intercepted envelopes with social security cards in them and did not give these documents to the addressees. Without these documents, the students could not find other work.
Cordes noted that from 1998 to 2006, Carslake used false promises to lure young people from abroad to take jobs. Carslake promised Russian students $10,000 for the 2006 summer season, travel expenses, and also lodging in a home with all the amenities. In actual fact, the manager forced the young people to work 13-hour days, seven days a week, and instead of living in a house, the students lived in two one-bedroom apartments furnished only with matresses thrown on the floor. The students were paid between 82 cents and $3.77 an hour, from which part was deducted to pay the company for rental of the trucks. Carslake got an $18,000 bonus from the company for “successful” work during the summer season.
Cordes told the court that the prosecutors decided to come to a compromise with the accused so that the exploited students would be compensated for their difficult work.
Carslake’s lawyer reminded the court that the Russian students earned from $1,500 to $6,000 over the summer, and that one the student who earned less than the others was himself at fault; many customers complained about him.
“This case has nothing in common with forced labor,” the defense attorney emphasized.
