A company with ties to a polygamous sect on the Utah-Arizona border has agreed to pay $200,000 for pay back wages to children who picked pecans for long hours in the cold.
Federal prosecutors in Utah said Wednesday in a court filing that Paragon Contractors has agreed to make 12 monthly payments.
The company also agreed to pay a $15,000 retainer and $300 an hour to an independent attorney who will monitor the business for five years.
U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell ordered the fine and the monitor in December. In a sharply worded order, she found that Paragon sent kids as young as 6 to the 2012 harvest, sometimes with little food and few bathroom breaks.
The company's attorneys said the children were glad to get a break from schoolwork to gather nuts for the needy.
