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Immigration adviser on tape offering fake job for $70k
The conversation was taped by migrant Richard Wu, who arrived from Singapore in May and lost his job two months later. He claims he had already paid $18,000 to the adviser, Heidi Castelucci, for arranging a five-year Accredited Employer Work Visa and what he thought was a legitimate job as a driver and administrator at Liberty Consulting Group in Auckland.
Castelucci is heard in the recordings discussing the job-selling scheme, which she says was her husband Toby Castelucci's proposal: "So Toby's idea is that if you need residency sponsorship, we can help you with that all at once... he asked me to call you and ask you, don't you want us to sponsor your residency directly?
"Then it [residence] takes two years, but there are some costs of the company involved, such as taxes. So every year, just the taxes alone will cost the company about $20,000 extra... Toby's idea is that if it's you and your family, it's $110,000, which includes the company's additional tax and other costs."
"Job-selling" or charging a premium for a job is an offence, as is immigration fraud.
A worker coaxed into working outside the terms of their visa or without paying tax risks them being deported.
Company denies job offer for payment
Liberty Consulting Group's sole director and shareholder Toby Castelucci said the company denies the claims.
"It [Liberty] did not offer Mr Wu any position after his employment ended, or to help him find a position with a different employer, in exchange for payment," he said.
"It also did not receive any payment from Mr Wu after his employment was terminated. Any such offer purportedly made to him was made without Liberty Consulting's knowledge or consent. As his concerns are the subject to a formal complaint, it is not appropriate for Liberty Consulting to comment further at this time."
In the July recordings, Heidi Castelucci is heard discussing what she said her husband had proposed — a job with a higher salary to get residence, and how Wu's payments would be made in smaller instalments.
She also discusses how the job purchase price could come down from $110,000 to $70,000 if the migrant paid separately to cover the company's taxes and costs in "employing" him and how he could get an under-the-table job, to pay for his new salary as a business development manager, as well as Liberty Consulting Group's costs and wage taxes.
Heidi Castelucci holds a provisional licence as an immigration adviser. Until recently, both were listed as shareholders and directors of the New Zealand Language Institute and Foreign Exchange Program, based at the same office in Rosedale.
"Five instalments over two years," Castelucci, who is also known as Qian Yu, told Wu. "With a high salary, once submitted, it'll be approved, no other issues.
"So before you submit your visa [application], you will have paid a total of $45,000, and after two years, when you obtain residency, you'll pay the remaining $25,000."
'A gentleman's verbal agreement'
In another conversation, Wu asks her about keeping a record of the deal.
"We cannot give you any agreement, we cannot provide any written documentation, it's just a gentleman's verbal agreement," she said.
Heidi Castelucci told RNZ: "If Mr Wu has particular concerns about my conduct as a Licensed Immigration Adviser, those are appropriately referred to the Immigration Advisers Authority for consideration. It would not be appropriate for me to comment until that process is completed."
Wu left the country with his children two months ago after taking legal advice, and complaining to the Employment Relations Authority.
He arrived in New Zealand on a work visa, with a pre-arranged job offer at Liberty Consulting Group.
During the two months he was there, he worked on reception and administration, but claims he was expected to take his boss's children to school and do extra unpaid work in the evenings, picking up people from the airport.
While working in reception, he claimed he overheard complaints of people whose visa applications had not been submitted, and that another employee was sacked after 11 days.
He told RNZ he was sacked after being pulled into meetings where he was "accused of poor performance without prior notice or the opportunity to prepare a defence". He claimed Castelucci told him to write a resignation letter, suggesting it would work out better for him with Immigration New Zealand.
Wu has children, aged six and 12, and their student visas also depended on him having a work visa.
'Hidden from the public'
He said he became so stressed after being fired that he could not sleep.
"I try to ask her whether, how about my visa, because I'm worried about if my visa was terminated here I need to go back, my children have no school to study. So during this time, I continue to ask her, 'How about my visa?'
"Then after that, three days after — I received her call, calling me back about this, giving me a new position, that I need to pay for the extra money, then I can keep my visa. This way is I pay my salary myself and pay my tax myself."
The "job-selling" scheme would allegedly have involved him paying $70,000 to Castelucci or Liberty Consulting Group via a series of smaller instalments.
The conversations suggest he would need to cover the cost of his higher salary by taking a cash-in-hand job elsewhere, while Liberty Consulting Group took care of the paperwork to make it look like the company was paying him — so he could keep a visa and eventually get residence.
He told RNZ he made one $7500 payment towards the proposed scam but, after sleepless nights, went to see a lawyer.
Employment advocate May Moncur, who is now representing Wu as he tries to reclaim the alleged wage premiums, believes that by recording the conversations he had brought evidence of a more widespread fraud into the open. She believes it was something that was going on behind closed doors for countless migrants at many other companies — hidden from the public and authorities, she said.
In her opinion, Wu's case also highlighted that scams are continuing despite an official review on INZ's inadequate checks on companies and jobs reporting back in February, she said. She wants action from INZ, the Immigration Advisers' Authority, the police and IRD.
'Extremely concerned'
RNZ has passed Wu's allegations, including the July recordings, to the police and Wu has himself complained to the IAA. The Casteluccis have been approached repeatedly for comment, and excerpts from the man's recordings were sent to the couple. Toby Castelucci said he denies Wu's claims, and Heidi Castelucci said it would be inappropriate to comment before the IAA heard the case.
"We are extremely concerned about any reports of migrants paying for job offers, and strongly encourage anyone who finds themselves in this situation to contact us as soon as possible to discuss their circumstances," said INZ's investigations manager Jason Perry.
"New Zealand employers cannot charge fees for a job or make anyone pay any of their recruitment costs. This includes indirectly through a third party who then demands you pay them. We also strongly encourage any New Zealand employer or entity affected by an immigration scam to report it to police or Crime Stoppers."
The Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA) said immigration advisers charge a fee for their services but that is different to prospective employees paying employers to secure a job.
Moncur wants Inland Revenue to play a bigger part in deterring the schemes by stamping down on the related tax evasion involved in job-selling and wage recycling schemes: "Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have come to New Zealand and the related service fees are in the millions, in the millions. I don't think IRD has received a cent of it."
Inland Revenue (IR) said it does investigate and take action when it receives information about matters such as employers not registering employees or payments being made in cash and premiums being charged, including by immigration agents — but there needs to be sufficient detail, and the crime has to have occurred in New Zealand.
Meanwhile Richard Wu, who is originally from China, is now back in Singapore where he has lived for 20 years. He is worried his children may not be allowed back into the good, government schools they were in before they left.
In New Zealand, he says he was having to drive his boss's children to school while his own young son had to make his own way.
"I also want to say to my child, I'm sorry."
He said he's sorry for bringing them here at all.
Moncur sees many similar cases, and said they too are only the tip of the iceberg. Dodgy employers and immigration advisers were involved in exploitation, under-payment, fraud and job-selling, which was generating hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-free profit from migrants, she said.
She wants tribunal judgements made against companies to also be enforceable against individuals, to stop firms from closing down and reopening under another name - similar to so-called phoenix companies - and which can avoid paying compensation to migrants they are found to have exploited or scammed.
"They came here to start a new future for their children, but this is what they get," she added. "It's more than a scandal. It's a crime. It's a cancer."
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