Owner of Vashon Island, Washington, landscaping company sentenced to 20 years in prison for human trafficking, labor trafficking and money laundering

Press Release

Paid for smuggling non-citizens into the U.S. and then used that debt to exploit them for his profit and the benefit of his family

Seattle -A 45-year-old Vashon Island, Washington resident was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 20 years in prison for 21 federal felonies related to human trafficking and forced labor, announced U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Jesus Ruiz-Hernandez, aka Christo Jesus Escobar Solares, was found guilty in January 2024 following a 13-day jury trial. At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said that after observing Ruiz-Hernandez through the trial he saw "a complete lack of respect for the truth."

"For years, Jesus Ruiz-Hernandez lived a lie. He presented himself as the upstanding and hardworking owner of a successful landscaping business on Vashon Island. In reality, Ruiz-Hernandez was neither hardworking nor law-abiding," said U.S. Attorney Gorman. "His business model was premised on enticing vulnerable persons from Mexico to come to the United States to work for his company - and then exploiting them by forcing them to work for him for little to no money while using their debts and immigration status to keep them tethered to him as his source of cheap labor."

"The crimes committed here will leave a scar on the victims and the entire community that Ruiz-Hernandez conned into believing that he lawfully supported, that he was pursuing the American dream when he was in fact subjecting would be workers into a life of subjugation," said Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer, who oversees HSI operations in the Pacific Northwest. "I'm thankful for our task force partnerships that result in a resounding win in the fight against human trafficking and am especially grateful to both the Department of Justice and the Seattle Police Department, as it is through their key collaborations that these complex investigations are accomplished."

Records filed in the case and testimony at trial revealed that Ruiz-Hernandez lured victims from his hometown of Vista Hermosa, Michoacan, with the promise of a better life for their families. In exchange, Ruiz-Hernandez required victims to put up collateral, including the temporary relinquishment of parental rights and interest in family properties. Ruiz-Hernandez, using smugglers he hired, brought the undocumented victims to the U.S. and then forced them to work for his company, Brothers Landscaping, on Vashon Island. He then charged the victims exorbitant fees for rent, food, and other expenses, housed them both in his home and worker properties and held ever increasing debts over their heads.

In the spring of 2017, Ruiz-Hernandez used smugglers to bring an adult victim to the United States and then used force, threats of force, and physical violence to force the victim to work for him without pay. The jury found Ruiz-Hernandez committed aggravated sexual abuse against the victim. From 2018 until August 2021, Ruiz-Hernandez forced a second victim he had brought to the U.S. to work for him by threatening him with harm. The victim was also transported and harbored for financial gain. In all, Ruiz-Hernandez was convicted of exploiting the labor of seven people not legally in the U.S.

In asking for a sentence of more than 24 years in prison, prosecutors noted that the criminal conduct in this case had gone on for more than seven years and likely involved more than the seven victims. "Ruiz-Hernandez treated his victims as nothing more than commodities to earn him money. He either refused to pay them at all, claiming that they owed him for outrageously inflated amounts for rent and other expenses, or paid them well below what they had earned. He treated them as indentured servants, forcing them to perform unpaid labor both at his house and at the rental properties."

Ruiz-Hernandez was also convicted of six counts of money laundering. Testimony revealed that Ruiz-Hernandez and his brothers had deposited over $1.5 million in checks from customers to their bank account between 2017 and 2022. Much of those funds were payment for the work done by the victims and others the defendant illegally brought to the U.S., trafficked, harbored, and exploited. Ruiz-Hernandez took steps to keep his name off corporate documents, financial records, numerous transactions, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of international wires to Mexico. Ruiz-Hernandez and his co-conspirators used some of that laundered proceeds to purchase two pieces of property on the island.

Following the trial on the human and labor trafficking counts, the jury determined that the properties on Vashon were purchased with laundered proceeds of his illegal scheme and ordered that the properties should be forfeited to the government.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Task Force Officer Megan Bruneau Zentner. Detective Zentner is with the Seattle Police Department, assigned to the HSI Task Force. Detective Zentner's position is federally funded by the Department of Justice's Enhanced Collaborative Model with a focus on investigating labor trafficking of foreign-born victims.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kate Crisham, Jehiel Baer, and former Assistant United States Attorney Jocelyn Cooney. Ms. Crisham is the Western District of Washington coordinator of efforts to stop human trafficking.

Contact

Updated April 30, 2024