- A federal investigation into Rubicon Contracting for alleged labor trafficking has closed.
- No charges will be filed, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
- Rubicon's civil lawsuit against former AG Sean Reyes continues with a hearing Friday.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Davis County general contracting company once accused of labor trafficking says it has been informed that a federal investigation into its business has been closed and no charges will be filed.
"Our office's investigation of the Rubicon matter (which was premised on allegations of visa fraud and forced labor) is closed. We declined prosecution, as has the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah," states the letter dated April 8 from William E. Nolan, deputy chief with the U.S. Department of Justice's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.
The letter was included in a court filing Monday by attorneys for Rubicon Contracting LLC and its owners, Rudy Larsen and Jena Larsen, informing the court the federal investigation was completed.
In November 2023, the founders and five executive members of Rubicon Contracting were charged with multiple counts each of aggravated human trafficking by the Utah Attorney General's Office. The group was accused of recruiting about 150 people from Mexico to work for the company using H-2B visas. But once in Utah, charging documents alleged that the victims were paid very little and forced to live in deplorable housing provided by Rubicon, while also being forced to pay rent under the threat of deportation.
But following a contentious court hearing in December of 2024 in which the judge questioned whether the case had been "vastly overcharged," the case was dismissed at the request of the attorney general's office because of a pending federal investigation.
In October, Rubicon filed a $1 billion civil lawsuit in federal court against then-Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and several of his staff members claiming the team "conspired to manufacture bogus criminal charges to falsely inflate the public perception of the severity of human trafficking in Utah. Why? To try and justify the existence of and secure funding for the SECURE Strike Force."
In February, Reyes responded by saying the lawsuit should be dismissed because "the claims fail on the grounds of absolute prosecutorial immunity, qualified immunity, and failure to plausibly plead direct involvement, supervisory liability, and constitutional violations."
In their notification to the court about the end of the federal investigation and no criminal charges, attorneys for Rubicon say it is relevant when considering Reyes' motion to dismiss the case.
"The declination letter confirms that the purported federal investigation has terminated favorably to (Rubicon)," the court filing states.
The next court hearing for the civil lawsuit is scheduled for Friday.
