MIAMI (AP) -- An airport security firm that provides security personnel and luggage screeners to small airlines has agreed to plead guilty and pay an undisclosed fine for failing to do adequate background checks on employees.
The charges filed Tuesday against Aviation Safeguards of Florida involve at least 22 employees at the same Miami airport where 58 people, including baggage handlers and ground crew, were indicted in August for smuggling cocaine and weapons on flights.Tuesday's charges were not related to the August indictment.
Federal prosecutor Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald said Aviation Safeguards workers were routinely given limitless access to secure areas of the airport without proper background or criminal checks. That has "serious implications" for the public, Watts-Fitzgerald said.
Aviation Safeguards attorney Jon Sale said Wednesday that the problem had been corrected and that a settlement had been reached, though it had not yet been made public.
The company could have faced up to $500,000 in fines and five years probation if convicted.
The charges stemmed from the actions of the company's former general manager in Miami, Guillermo Blanco, who pleaded guilty in January to 22 counts of giving false statements about background checks to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Authorities said there is no evidence company executives knew Blanco hadn't done the checks, but since the company benefited, prosecutors decided to charge it criminally.