PROVIDENCE – U.S. officials today announced a plea agreement with Vincent D’Elia, operator of Johnston-based Falcon Maintenance Co. LLC, to settle charges he hired illegal aliens.

The agreement with D’Elia and a related “information” that details the charges against him were filed yesterday in U.S. District Court, Providence, according to Robert Clark Corrente, U.S. attorney for the District of Rhode Island, and Bruce M. Foucart, regional special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

D’Elia’s company “was one of two companies that contracted with the Rhode Island Judiciary for janitorial services at state courthouses,” Corrente’s office noted in a statement today. Between them, Falcon Maintenance and TriState Enterprises had held 48 state cleaning contracts, but both companies were fired by the state after ICE agents and R.I. State Police arrested 31 cleaning workers at state courthouses on July 15.

The workers allegedly were “undocumented aliens” employed illegally by the contractors. “Four of those arrested face federal criminal charges that are pending,” the U.S. attorney’s office added.

The case – which spurred a flood of calls to local immigration lawyers from companies seeking to ensure their own compliance with federal requirements (READ MORE) – has been investigated by ICE and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation division, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. McAdams.

In the plea bargain filed yesterday, “D’Elia will admit that, in addition to hiring undocumented aliens, he failed to accurately withhold and pay over federal insurance contributions from the aliens’ wages, and failed to remit Social Security taxes (FICA),” Corrente’s office said. He also agrees to cooperate with the IRS in determining his firm’s outstanding tax liability.

D’Elia faces a maximum penalty of “six months in prison and a fine of $3,000 for each unauthorized alien,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. It added, however, that despite the plea agreement, “an information is merely an allegation and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until found guilty in court.”

Falcon Maintenance did not immediately respond to a PBN telephone message requesting comment.

For information about the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island and its decisions, visit www.rid.uscourts.gov. For news and information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island, visit www.usdoj.gov/usao/ri.