Business audits lead to arrests for false IDs, immigration status

More than 1,400 Beaufort County businesses have been audited this year as part of an ongoing check of employee immigration forms -- and some of those audits have led to employee arrests.

Andy Patrick, chief executive officer of Advance Point Global, the Hilton Head Island firm conducting the checks for the county, said about 890 businesses and 7,000 employee immigration forms, called I-9s, were audited in 2008.

"This year we looked at as many, or near as many," Patrick said.

About half of the forms checked in 2008 were incorrect or had errors.

"Our goal is and always has been to ensure that businesses in Beaufort County are in compliance with the law," Patrick said. "We advise businesses what steps they need to take to make corrections necessary to get compliant."

Errors range from clerical ones, such as an employee's failure to sign, to potentially criminal, such as using a false alien registration number or stolen identification card, Patrick said.

Auditors have turned more than 1,000 employees' names over to the Sheriff's Office for further investigation, he said.

The Sheriff's Office did not immediately provide to The Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet the total number of those charged in connection with the audits.

Sheriff's reports show arrest warrants have been issued this month for at least four people on charges, including forgery and fraud, in connection with the audits.

County administrator Gary Kubic directed the company to turn over the details from the audits to the Sheriff's Office, according to the reports.

"Our practice has been to allow the sharing of information," Kubic said. "The audit is designed to help businessmen recognize when they're presented with something that may not be exact."

The random audits of businesses were mandated by the Beaufort County Council in 2006. The program began in earnest in April 2008.

A wide variety of companies are randomly audited, but all are based in or doing business in unincorporated areas of the county.

Kubic has said the audits are meant to be instructive, not punitive. But if a business doesn't comply, it could lose its county license.No business has yet lost its license, officials said.

"I'm happy with the pace, and I'd like to get the whole pool done," Kubic said of the audits. "We're moving forward so that we get as many as we can possibly get. It's a random process, but the idea is to cover as many in that pool as possible."