Manhattan Restaurant Chain Owners Arrested
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The owners of a Manhattan restaurant chain were arrested Wednesday for allegedly lying to the state as they cheated their workers out of fair wages, according to the New York attorney general's office.
Simon and Michelle Nget, who own the uptown and downtown Saigon Grill restaurants, face more than 400 criminal counts, ranging from falsifying business records and cheating the state unemployment insurance fund to failing to pay legal wages and taking illegal kickbacks.
Organizers say they hope this serves as a warning for other employers.
"We hope really that today, what happened today will set a precedent to other employers out there,” said Tony Tsai of the Chinese Workers Staff Association. “This kind of action’s got to stop and this is what we really hope for."
In October, 36 immigrant workers at the restaurant were awarded $4.6 million in back pay.