Local restaurant part of federal investigation
Local restaurant part of federal investigation
By Lisa King
Friday, January 12, 2018 at 3:26 am (Updated: January 12, 10:13 am)
State and federal law enforcement agencies are conducting an investigation into at least three Asian restaurants throughout the state, including Asian Buffet at 89 Howard Drive in Shelbyville.
Terry Sebastian, communications director for the Kentucky Attorney General’s office, said “It was a joint investigation at several locations.”
The other two restaurants are Jumbo Buffet in LaGrange and the Asian Buffet in Frankfort.
Officials at both the United States Attorney’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office, the two entities involved, would not elaborate on the nature of the investigation.
“I can’t because the U.S. Attorney’s Office is taking the lead on it,” Sebastian said.
Stephanie Collins, communications director for the United States Attorney’s Office, Western District, said she could only confirm that a search warrant was served.
“I know that there were several search warrants,” she said, adding that she thought Kentucky State Police assisted with that portion of the proceedings.
Kentucky State Police Bernie Napier said that troopers had a limited role in the investigation, which involved helping to serve the search warrant Tuesday at the Asian Buffet in Shelbyville.
“Our troopers assisted with the execution of the search warrant,” he said. Other than that, we didn’t have any involvement in the investigation.”
While it is unclear who owns the Asian Buffet in Shelbyville, PVA records list the owner of the shopping center on Howard Drive as Tang Fei Zhuo. The last business listing through the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office for the location is Zhao Feng Li, but that license expired in 2014.
On Wednesday, the restaurant was open for business, but employees said no manager or owner was available to speak.
Frankfort’s Asian Buffet was also reopened Thursday, according to a report in The State Journal.
WLKY reported that Tang Fei Gou, owner of the LaGrange restaurant has ties to the Shelbyville location, but those are unclear at this time.
Tang Fei Gou was sentenced to eight months in prison in 2009 for employing illegal aliens at his restaurant.
http://www.sentinelnews.com/content/...-investigation
