Fuyao makes float glass and construction glass in Illinois.
Chinese-owned Fuyao Glass acquired a former General Motors plant in Moraine in 2014, investing $600 million and at one time, employing more than 2,000 workers there, making it the world’s largest auto glass production site, according to the company.
Fuyao has 942 employees in Illinois, according to the Illinois Department of Commerce.
The news comes as the federal government is pursuing a civil forfeiture complaint against assets tied to an investigation of an alleged $126 million staffing and money laundering operation that has been linked to some Fuyao workers.
Last July, federal agents searched Fuyao’s Moraine plant and other Dayton-area locations.
No charges have been filed against Fuyao.
But according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice last month, a federal civil complaint alleges that multiple suspects created roughly 40 businesses to enable the harboring, transportation and employment of illegal aliens at several factories, including Fuyao in Moraine.
“It is alleged that many of the workers were illegally smuggled into the United States, primarily through Mexico, and encouraged to travel to the Dayton area to be employed by one of the target entities and serve as a workforce at the various factories,” the department said.
Messages seeking comment were sent to a spokeswoman for Fuyao and a representative of the Illinois Department of Commerce.
The Dayton Daily News recently interviewed a former contract security employee for Fuyao, Tim Davis, who said he saw what federal agents allege was a human smuggling and money laundering operation.
“I would count about two of the big white … vans, (an) extended cab that held on average 12 to 15 people, and about three of the silver ones every shift, on first and second,” Davis told the newspaper.
The vans were full of foreign workers, he said. Sometimes one person would swipe a badge and facilitate access for a number of other people through plant gates — something forbidden for American workers.
“Usually it was like one person with a badge for like 12 people,” Davis said, saying the workers showed up in the system as working for E-Z Iron Works.
Media reports in Asia say Fuyao has over 40% of the global automotive glass market and over 70% in China.
The company also has locations in Plymouth, Mich. and Fountain Inn, S.C., according to its web site.
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