NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

MATT J. WHITWORTH

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEDERAL BUILDING WORKER PLEADS GUILTY

TO SOCIAL SECURITY FRAUD

            KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Matt J. Whitworth, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that the former food service director at the Richard Bolling Federal Building in Kansas City, Mo., pleaded guilty in federal court today to assisting an illegal alien who was using a false Social Security number in order to work in the cafeteria.

            Christopher Wenell, 44, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Greg Kays this afternoon to a federal information that charges him with Social Security fraud.

            Wenell was the Food Service Director for Aramark Services, Inc., the contractor which operates the cafeteria in the federal building. Wenell admitted that he recruited Luis Carreon, an illegal alien from Mexico, to work for Aramark. Between Dec. 9, 2005, and Sept. 25, 2007, Wenell assisted Carreon in using false Social Security cards by re-employing him, knowing that the Social Security cards were false.

            In a separate but related case, Carreon was sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to Social Security fraud and identity theft. In other related cases, former Aramark employees Felipe Carreon and Francisco J. Munoz-Carmona, also illegal aliens from Mexico, and Nilda A. Franco and Fania L. Garza, both illegal aliens from Guatemala, also pleaded guilty and were sentenced on similar charges contained in a series of indictments returned on Nov. 6, 2007.

            Under federal statutes, Wenell is subject to a sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

            This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William L. Meiners. It was investigated by the Federal Protective Service and the Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General.

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This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html