Community Corner

Bail Denied for Manager Arrested in 7-Eleven Sting

Malik Yousaf, a South Setauket resident, was deemed a flight risk by a federal judge.

This article was written by Joseph Pinciaro.

Bail was denied on Monday for a South Setauket man and 7-Eleven employee reportedly involved in a scheme which included smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States and subjecting them to long work hours for scant pay at the convenience stores.

Locations busted in the June sting included one in Cutchogue on Route 25, as well as nine others on Long Island, including locations in Greenport and Sag Harbor.

While Farrukh Baig and his wife Bushra, owners of most of the franchises, remain in custody – as do the rest of the defendants – South Setauket resident Malik Yousaf was denied bail on Monday, a Department of Justice spokesman confirmed, as a federal judge believed him to be a flight risk.

Newsday reported on Monday that Yousaf, one of the nine defendants arrested in the sting, had put up a bail package valued around $2 million, including homes on Long Island and in New Hampshire belonging to himself, family and friends. His lawyer said that the ruling would be appealed, according to Newsday.

According to officials, Baig, Yousaf, and several others brought over 50 immigrants into the country and in addition to having them work extra hours at the 7-Eleven shops they oversaw – reportedly up to 100-hour work weeks – the workers were forced to live in housing owned by Baig. Rent was then reportedly deducted from the pay earned by the workers, whose identities had been fabricated in order to falsify working documents.

U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, of the Eastern District of New York, announced the indictment of nine people last month in one of the largest criminal immigrant employment investigations ever conducted by the Department of Justice. 

"We've all seen them, they are part of the roadside scenery of America. They are instantly recognizable to anyone who has run out to buy cigarettes or taken a road trip," Lynch said. "But inside this familiar red, green and orange-striped facade, beside the coffee and the Big Gulps, a decidedly un-American practice was going on inside the stores we've targeted today."

Lynch said that Baig, of Head of the Harbor, along with his wife Bushra and six others, including Yousaf, were allegedly involved in a scheme to force illegal immigrant labor to work long hours in their 7-Eleven franchises, skirting labor laws by using stolen identities to mask the actual time their workers spent on the clock.

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7-Eleven stores in Cutchogue and Greenport owned by Baig were shut as part of the raid.

Compounding the crime, Baig then paid the illegal workers a fraction of their actual earnings and forced them to live in housing Baig and his family owned in exchange for rent taken out of their meager cash-only pay.

Find out what's happening in North Forkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Baig owned eight 7-Eleven franchises across Long Island, including two locations in Smithtown – including the brand new store on Terry Road, and one each in Islip, Selden, Sag Harbor, Greenport, Nesconset, Cutchogue and Port Jefferson Station.

A similar but unrelated scheme was allegedly being perpetrated at the same time by 7-Eleven franchise owners Azhar Zia, who remains at large, and his partner Ummar Uppal. They owned 7-Eleven stores in Huntington and Islip Terrace.

The franchise owners were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, identity theft and harboring and concealing illegal aliens.

The scheme started to crumble in 2010 when a handful of the undocumented workers could no longer tolerate the conditions and reported Baig and his wife to the state police.

Special Agent James Hayes, of Homeland Security, said that 40 other 7-Eleven locations would be investigated next, including 25 in the New York City area, in an attempt to discover how widespread the practice could be.

Lynch and Hayes both said that the corporate offices of 7-Eleven were cooperating with the investigations, and that no locations would be shut down

The defendants face 20 years in prison on wire fraud conspiracy and alien harboring charges, as well as multiple counts of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory, consecutive two-year term.

Across the North Fork, residents reacted to the news with shock after the 7-Eleven raids. "It's unbelievable -- they used Gestapo tactics," said Jack Gismondi of Peconic. "They're bullies. All they were missing were the Jackboots."


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