Dr. Oz was in the Turkish Army. Oz is from New Jersey. He lives with his in-laws the Asplundh‘s In Pennsylvania. “(“Asplundh”), pleaded guilty…to unlawfully employing aliens” ASPLUNDH PAID A 95 $ MILLION FINE.

Dr. Oz is highly focused on immigration reform in the U.S. as he angles for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, however, his family business has been fined nearly $100 million for the illegal hiring of immigrants using fake names. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. 

“But much of Oz’s fortune, not to mention his ties to Pennsylvania, come from a different source: His wife’s wealthy family. Her grandfather cofounded Asplundh Tree Expert with his two brothers in 1928. With $4.7 billion in revenue, Asplundh is now the 98th biggest private company in America and the fifth largest in Pennsylvania, with more than 33,000 employees. The 93-year-old company, which trims trees for electric utilities, municipalities and others, is run by the third generation of Asplundhs and owned by nearly 200 family members – who are collectively worth at least $3 billion.

That probably helps explain why the celebrity doctor was able to fund his campaign with $12.1 million of personal loans and another $1.7 million of contributions, the sort of money that most wouldn’t consider throwing away unless they knew they had an especially large stash as backup.

Oz, who is the son of Turkish immigrants and also has Turkish citizenship, got his MD and MBA at UPenn in 1986 and lived for years in New Jersey. He only registered to vote in Pennsylvania in December 2020, using his in-laws address…

The first union for Asplundh workers was organized in 1951. In the glory days of trade unionism in the 1960s and 1970s, the labor situation periodically turned nasty, and there was rock-throwing violence.

When employees struck at the company's equipment manufacturing plant in 1984, the company shut it down and moved the division to North Carolina. It was subsequently sold. Today unions represent just 20% of Asplundh's almost 20,000 employees, down from a peak of 50% in 1970.

By 1968 the founding brothers were retired or dead, and a second generation had taken over. Barr Asplundh, Griff's son, was elected president, and seven brothers and cousins were on the board of directors. Edward Asplundh, Carl's son, followed him in 1981. Cris Asplundh, the youngest of the second generation, took over in 1992, with nine members of the third generation serving in key roles…

Benefiting from the pressure on politicians to make tax dollars work harder, Asplundh has begun to get a lot of business from municipalities, too. It coordinates traffic-light sequences in Philadelphia, for example, and trims the trees in New York's Central Park.

All told, Asplundh Tree's revenues from services other than tree trimming will come to around $400 million this year, up from $42 million a decade ago. They're likely to keep growing rapidly as newly deregulated telephone and electric companies search for ways to cut costs."

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The Billionaire Family Behind Dr. Oz Is One Of The Wealthiest Clans In Pennsylvania

Matt Durot

June 4, 2022

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“PHILADELPHIA — A six year U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Philadelphia investigation led to the largest civil settlement agreement ever levied by ICE.

Asplundh Tree Experts, Co., one of the largest privately-held companies in the United States, headquartered in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, (“Asplundh”), pleaded guilty today to unlawfully employing aliens, in connection with a scheme in which the highest levels of Asplundh management remained willfully blind while lower level managers hired and rehired employees they knew to be ineligible to work in the United States…

The $95 million dollar recovery, including $80 million dollars criminal forfeiture money judgment and $15 million dollars in civil payment, represents the largest payment ever levied in an immigration case…

According to court documents, from 2010 until December 2014, Asplundh, an industry leader in tree trimming and brush clearance for power and gas lines, hired and rehired employees in many regions in the United States accepting identification documents it knew to be false and fraudulent. A six-year HSI audit and investigation revealed that the company decentralized its hiring so Sponsors (the highest levels of management) could remain willfully blind while Supervisors and General Foremen (2nd and 3rd level supervisors) hired ineligible workers, including unauthorized aliens, in the field. Hiring was by word of mouth referrals rather than through any systematic application process. This manner of hiring enabled Supervisors and General Foremen to hire a work force that was readily available and at their disposal.

This decentralized model tacitly perpetuated fraudulent hiring practices that, in turn, maximized productivity and profit. With a motivated work force, including unauthorized aliens willing to be relocated and respond to weather related events around the nation, Asplundh had crews which were easily mobilized that enabled them to dominate the market. Asplundh provided all the incentives to managers to skirt immigration law."

U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 PHILADELPHIA, PA LABOR EXPLOITATION

Asplundh Tree Experts, Co. pays largest civil settlement agreement ever levied by ICE