I think you’re right that workers will be screwed out of social security benefits (unless that’s addressed as part of the legal proceedings, which I hope it will be). I want trying to imply that the workers aren’t harmed by this, just that the violation was more tax fraud than wage theft (which sadly is why it was taken seriously).

This was tax fraud, not wage theft (though I absolutely acknowledge that wage theft is a massive issue that is not treated or investigated as seriously as it should be - but I will also give a shout out to Seattle’s office of labor standards as they do a great job of getting employees their owed wages).