SPRINGFIELD—Days after news broke of an apparent FBI and Ohio Attorney General investigation into George Ten and First Diversity staffing in Springfield as part of a human trafficking inquiry, the spotlight is on a system of bad incentives ripe for exploitation — and a ring of other landlords linked with entities that appear to be staffing agencies.
Parallel incentives to those that reward NGOs for resettling migrants could be driving staffing agencies to transport Haitian migrants to the towns in question, collect a premium on their earnings from placing the migrants in jobs, and provide housing for them downstream of government benefits for migrants.
Springfield’s Haitian migrant crisis garnered headlines after Mayor Rob Rue’s and City Manager Bryan Heck’s appeal to the federal government early last summer. Springfield became the talk of the nation with viral reports of migrants killing wildlife and eating cats and dogs.
Springfield became the nation’s top story due to the startling cultural upheaval that stemmed from a flood of 20,000 migrants to the city of 60,000. The social and economic fallout, all financed by the taxpayer, altered Springfield’s landscape entirely.
Then came First Diversity. The staffing agency, run by George Ten, has become the apparent target of a human trafficking inquiry.
A spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office could “neither confirm nor deny” whether an active investigation was open, nor whether other entities were the target of inquiry. The Cincinnati FBI Field Office did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Whether any wrongdoing has occurred — or whether officials confirm an active human trafficking investigation — the dynamic has prompted allegations of exploitation and human trafficking.
When it came to light that First Diversity and its president, George Ten, were the apparent targets of an FBI and Ohio Attorney General investigation into human trafficking in Springfield, a tip pointed Ohio.news to the Ridgewood apartments on Home Road.
A source told Ohio.news that activities at Ridgewood were “possibly related” to Ten’s enterprise of apparently bringing migrants to Springfield and collecting premiums off their employment while also housing workers and charging them rent.
[READ: Three Haitian migrants were injured last year at Ridgewood when an apparent natural gas explosion rocked the apartment complex.]
Ohio.news uncovered a tangled ring of landlords and investment property LLCs, sometimes filed by registered agents, effectively concealing their real ownership. The LLCs own portfolios of dozens of rental properties in Ohio and elsewhere. Their addresses on official documents are often listed at other apartment buildings owned by related LLCs, obscuring the real ownership of the properties.
However, documents show many LLCs, beginning with Ridgewood in Springfield, linking back to entities in Brooklyn, New York — and an LLC called Poalim Staffing.
Poalim Staffing lists its addresses at rental properties held by related LLCs in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Florida, the states where Poalim is registered.
That LLC’s listed contact, Mendel Steiner, is linked circularly with dozens of other apartment holdings in Ohio and other states. Steiner is the listed contact for Poalim in each state.
According to the Clark County property records, the Ridgewood property on Home Road in Springfield lists its owner as Ridgewood Apartments, LLC and its tax address at another property at 2135 Troy Road in Springfield. The Troy Road property is held by an LLC called Springfield Oh Portfolio Real Estate.
Steiner also filed LLC paperwork in 2021 for Poalim Staffing in Ohio. Steiner is listed as the contact in each state Poalim is registered: Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Maryland.
Many of the properties and LLCs have been the subject of litigation. Poalim lists its Maryland address as 2349 Perring Road in Baltimore, the Dutch Manor Apartments. Reports surfaced alleging fraud over Steiner’s purchase of Dutch Manor. According to the Baltimore Banner, “Steiner bought the two complexes for $115 million but told the Bank of Montreal in Canada he paid $173 million, the bank claims in legal filings.”
“The bank agreed to provide a $160 million refinancing loan in January under those false premises, the bank alleges,” the Banner wrote.
Another string of LLCs associated with Steiner and the business address in Brooklyn at which Poalim Staffing is registered, own properties in Florida.
Three Hollywood, Florida apartments became the subject of a foreclosure suit this year: Grape Tree Lending filed a $3.26 million foreclosure complaint against Steiner and 1911 Taylor Ave LLC.
Multiple attempts to reach Steiner at a landline associated with an address named in the Florida suit were unsuccessful.
In any case, it remains unclear whether Poalim Staffing is an active staffing agency, what its activities are in any of the states where it’s registered, and whether it employs migrants who are also housed in apartment holdings owned by Steiner or related LLCs in Ohio or other states.
But the spotlight is on a system of bad incentives that could drive staffing agencies and landlords to bring migrants, collect a premium off of placing them in local jobs, and, collect a premium off of housing them. The dynamic could lend itself to exploitation, as the apparent investigation into First Diversity and Ten would indicate.
Ohio.news’ on-the-ground reporting has depicted the cultural damage of flooding a small town with 20,000 migrants and also the major economic fallout, including skyrocketing rents.
Springfieldians reported the difficulty of finding a house or apartment, with median rents skyrocketing 30% to 40% since the influx. With Haitians backed by major government subsidies under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Temporary Protected Status, local residents earning the median wage can’t keep up.
Landlords in Springfield became the focus of online chatter and viral stories, including that the city’s mayor, Rob Rue is himself a landlord who rents to migrants.
While officials have yet to confirm investigation into Ten, First Diversity or other entities, an Ohio.news source familiar with the matter in Springfield understood an AG or FBI investigation to be under way. Investigative journalist Asra Nomani also wrote that sources confirmed an investigation as well.
Residents of Springfield gave Ohio.news varying accounts of when and how Haitian migrants started arriving in Springfield. Some citizens told Ohio.news Haitians arrived gradually over the past few years, others said in only a year or two.
One source familiar with First Diversity and Ten told Ohio.news that when cruise lines shuttered during the pandemic, that’s when Haitians formerly employed in the tourism and hospitality industries, especially in Florida, started to flow steadily into Springfield, with Ten possibly at the helm.
Whether any wrongdoing has occurred — namely that entities such as staffing agencies and landlords could be linked in the enterprise of bringing Haitian migrants to Springfield and other cities, profiting off of both their employment and housing in a potentially exploitative situation — is unclear.
In the event First Diversity or another entity, such as Poalim Staffing, was bringing Haitian migrants to Springfield to work, to collect both a premium from both their labor and housing, every incentive is there for similarly organized entities to do so, with a steady tailwind of government migrant resettlement aid propping up the system.
But the emerging picture clearly shows a system of bad incentives stemming from U.S. immigration and labor policies, ripe for exploitation.
[RELATED: Meet the Columbus Nonprofit Collecting Hundreds of Millions Off of Migrant Resettlement].
Follow Ohio.news for updates on Springfield and Ohio news.
