The owner of a tree-planting company accused of treating workers like slaves has been charged with fraud-related crimes after a WorkSafe BC investigation into his company's camps.

Khalid Bajwa, the owner of Surrey-based Khaira Enterprises, is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to face two counts each of fraud over $5,000 and using a forged document in connection with two of his company's tree-planting camps.

Bajwa told ctvbc.ca that he plans to travel to Revelstoke to face the charges.

"I'm ready to fight," he said. "Why would I use those [forged documents]? I don't want to lose my business."

He added, however, that he isn't aware of the specific allegations against him.

The charges date back to June and July of 2010, when Khaira was operating camps in Revelstoke and Golden on contracts with the B.C. government.

The charges are the result of an investigation by WorkSafe BC, but the workplace watchdog is not commenting on the case, explaining that it is now before the courts. Crown prosecutors are not releasing any further details.

Khaira was also fined $9,122 by WorkSafe BC in March for failing to comply with occupational health and safety standards at the Golden site.

Workers were removed from that location last summer after they complained they were made to sleep seven men to a single trailer, fed rotten food, assaulted with knives and rocks, and forced to live without clean drinking water and toilets.

The men -- mostly new arrivals from Africa -- also said they were subjected to constant racial abuse, and told they would be fired if they spoke their native languages.

The Employment Standards Tribunal has ruled that Khaira owes 58 of those former employees $241,704 in unpaid wages, but Bajwa is refusing to pay and has vowed to challenge the ruling in B.C. Supreme Court.

Last month, the Ministry of Labour paid out less than half of the sum owed to the workers, some of whom have been living on the street as they struggle to make ends meet.

The B.C. government has also filed a lawsuit against Bajwa's business partner, Hardilpreet Singh Sidhu, claiming that he transferred ownership of his $605,000 house to his wife to avoid paying the tree-planters.

Sarah Khan, a lawyer who represents some of the men seeking unpaid wages, says she'll be watching Bajwa's criminal case closely.

"I don't think that criminal charges like this are common against employers, particularly employers of people who are working for low wages -- or no wages, in this case," she said.

"It does look like there's the possibility of jail time."

In the meantime, she says many former Khaira tree-planters are also waiting to receive EI payments while they search for other work.

"It's been a long road for these workers," Khan said.

B.C. Forest Safety Ombudsman Roger Harris released a report this summer examining what went wrong at Khaira's Golden camp.

Harris called conditions at the camp "intolerable," and blamed the situation on several problems with the government's process for awarding tree-planting contracts and how it monitors safety, health and labour issues at contract sites.

He said a key problem is the tendency to award contracts to the lowest bidder.

Khaira has been banned from bidding on government projects until September 2012.