Area farmers are sentenced to probation, ordered to pay fines

The Bad Axe area dairy farm owners who pleaded guilty in federal court in June to hiring about 80 illegal immigrants were sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $234,000 in fines. Johannes M. Verhaar and Anthonia M. Verhaar were sentenced in U.S. District Court for hiring illegal aliens and aiding and abetting each other to do so, according to a news release the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Bay City issued late Tuesday afternoon. The Verhaars’ convictions were the result of their guilty pleas entered in federal court following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI).

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