Concepcion Malinek Extorted Money from 33 Illegal Aliens Held Hostage in Her Basement

[Muriel Schwenck]

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/cicero-immigrants-concepcion-malinek/

03/28/2019,

Federal authorities say they found 19 adults and 14 children in a Cicero home during an early morning raid Tuesday, following allegations that Guatemalan citizens were being held in the basement there and forced to work.
Federal authorities say they found 19 adults and 14 children in a Cicero home during an early morning raid Tuesday, following allegations that Guatemalan citizens were being held in the basement there and forced to work.

When they got to the Cicero home where a woman had allegedly “enslaved” Guatemalan immigrants for years, the FBI had to break down every door, a prosecutor said.

Inside, agents found “deplorable” conditions. Mold. Cockroaches. Mattresses “all over the place.” And sewage backing up in the basement where Concepcion Malinek allegedly forced the immigrants — one as young as 18 months old — to live.

Malinek told the immigrants they couldn’t leave until they paid debts to her worth thousands of dollars, prosecutors say. That included the rent she charged them to live amid the squalor. When one immigrant fell behind on payments, she allegedly refused access to a bathroom until she was at least paid a late fee.

But Thursday, Malinek found herself in federal custody and facing a judge. Her lawyer argued that she had actually tried to help the immigrants, offering them shelter from trouble in Guatemala. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Parente said Malinek had instead “exploited the exploited” for financial gain.
[...]
Parente said the evidence against Malinek is “getting stronger by the minute.” He also said Malinek’s husband — a TSA officer — is a subject of the investigation.

[...]

Malinek allegedly forced the immigrants to live in her basement, collected large portions of their paychecks, told them they couldn’t leave until their debt was paid, and kept track of the money in a ledger. One child, a 15-year-old girl, was allegedly given an ID that said she was 27 and was sent to work on the factory floor five days a week.

It wasn’t clear Thursday what happened to the immigrants after Tuesday’s raid. A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to provide details. The Department of Children and Family Services did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Though some of the children held in the home were teenagers, Parente said much younger children were found there, including an 18-month-old.

The prosecutor said Malinek told the immigrants never to open the door for anyone, which is why the FBI had to break down the doors Tuesday.

Malinek is a dual citizen of the United States and Guatemala, Parente said. She might have an ownership stake in a hotel in Guatemala known as Hotel Malinek.

Raymond Pijon, Malinek’s defense attorney, painted a completely different picture of his client Thursday. He said many of the immigrants were relatives of Malinek’s who had fled Guatemala. He said she spent her own money to fly the immigrants to the area and put her own home at risk by letting them stay there.

“There was a lot of good heart behind that,” Pijon said, “because she knows what’s happening in Guatemala.”

[...]

 

[Sugar Cookie]

An Illinois woman was arrested after she held 33 Guatemalan immigrants, including children, in her basement, forcing them to work and threatening them with deportation, federal authorities said.

Concepcion Malinek faces forced labor charges following a Tuesday morning raid at her Cicero home, where they discovered 19 adults and 14 children, all believed to be from Guatemala, in the basement, a 12-page complaint filed in the Northern District of Illinois stated.

It’s unclear if the Guatemalans were in the country legally, however a victim told authorities he believed a majority of them had claimed political asylum. He claimed at least two of them were in the country illegally, the complaint stated.

Federal authorities began investigating Malinek in March after a person who worked with one of the victims contacted the FBI about potential human trafficking occurring at the residence.

Malinek helped the immigrants travel to the U.S. in 2018 and 2019, but then accused them of owing her thousands of dollars once they were on American soil, the complaint stated. To pay her back, Malinek allegedly forced them to work in a factory in Romeoville and took them to and from their workplace.

The 49-year-old kept track of the Guatemalans’ debts in a ledger, which appeared to contain signatures and “contract-type language regarding the debts owed to Malinek,” authorities said. One of the “contracts” stated the victim was “free to leave or stay” after the debt was settled.

The immigrants received a minuscule amount of the money they earned, according to the complaint, because the majority of it went to Malinek to pay the debt they owed, authorities said.

One of the victims told authorities Malinek claimed he owed her $18,000 for letting him use her name and home address on his immigration paperwork.

Another victim, who allegedly agreed to pay Malinek about $37,000 to get him and his family into the U.S., said he lived in the basement with his wife, 12-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter.

Malinek allegedly kept her captives quiet about the scheme by threatening deportation and dared them to call immigration officials.

“They already know you are here, so go ahead and call them,” she told them, according to the complaint

She allegedly told one person, “immigration knows how many people live in this house, you guys are poor and I have all the money.”

Illinois woman held 33 Guatemalans in basement, forced them into labor, threatened deportation, authorities say

An Illinois woman was arrested after she held 33 Guatemalan immigrants, including children, in her basement and forced them to work and threatened them with deportation, federal authorities said.

www.foxnews.com

 

[JackBurton]

That's a lot of trafficking victims who area bout to get ruthlessly deported

 

[Jack Webb]

Whenever I'm in Guatemala, I stay at the Hotel Malinek.

 

[Babs]

leech
NOUN
2.
a person who clings to another for personal gain, especially without giving anything in return, and usually with the implication or effect of exhausting the other's resources; parasite.

 

[Blunderbuss Firozabad]

Concepcion Malinek, 50

She tried the tears and the chest pains.

" A suburban Chicago woman was sentenced Tuesday to six and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to charges alleging she helped several people from Guatemala enter the U.S. illegally and forbid them from leaving her home until they paid off debts to her."

" Prosecutors said that from 2009 to 2019, Malinek helped at least 10 Guatemalan immigrants enter the U.S. illegally and forced them to work in a factory to pay off their debts to her. They said Malinek threatened the victims with deportation and separation from their children to force the victims to continue to work. Most lived in her basement.

Besides the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Edmond E. Chang ordered Malinek to pay $112,545 in restitution to the victims."

Cicero woman gets 6.5 years for labor trafficking

A suburban Chicago woman was sentenced Tuesday to six and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to charges alleging she helped several people from Guatemala enter the U.S. illegally and forbid them from leaving her home until they paid off debts to her.

www.fox32chicago.com