The company, Hartmann Studios, Inc., was found to have committed a number of violations related to paperwork completion failures – the vast amount of which were for failing to sign Section 2 of the I-9 forms the company produced in response to an audit notice from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according the law firm Ford & Harrison.
Additionally, it was uncovered that Hartmann Studios committed additional violations including “failing to require employees to designate their immigration status, provide their alien identification number and sign the attestation in completing section 1; failing to properly complete the document verification portion and compare union member identity and employment authorization documents with the numbers in the three-in-one forms when completing section 2; and in section 3, failing to record the updated employment authorization document(s) of employees whose original section 2 work eligibility document had expired.”
In all, the company was liable for 808 Form I-9 paperwork violations and on the hook for the $605,250 in assessed penalties. With the possibility of such large fines, companies can ill afford to not conduct self-audits to ensure their I-9 forms have been completed and retained in compliance with applicable laws.
Source: Ford & Harrison, LLP, 7/20/2015
Posted: July 22, 2015