A former owner of several labor staffing companies operating in Key West, Florida, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for conspiring to defraud the US and harbor aliens, inducing them to remain in the country, the US Department of Justice reported Friday.

The owner, Batyr Myatiev, was also ordered to pay nearly $6.9 million in restitution and serve three years of supervised release, according to the department.

Between November 2010 and October 2020, Myatiev operated a series of staffing firms — including Best Results Total Services Inc., Ameri Hosp LLC and Golden Sands Management LLC — and facilitated the employment of nonresident individuals in hotels, bars and restaurants operating in Key West and other locations, according to the department. Despite the employees not being authorized to work in the US, Myatiev encouraged them to enter the country illegally and induced them to remain there, the department said.

In addition, Myatiev’s labor staffing companies paid the workers without withholding federal income and employment taxes from their wages and did not report those wages to the IRS, according to the department.