Thread: MD-Restaurateur pleads guilty to harboring illegal aliens

Restaurateur pleads guilty to harboring illegal aliens
Undocumented workers found in Hanover restaurant

By Jessica Anderson

9:39 p.m. EDT, June 11, 2010


A Columbia woman faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guity to harboring illegal aliens in her Hanover restaurant.

Yen Wan Cheng, 54, admitted to employing undocumented workers at the Red Parrot Asian Bistro, her restaurant in the 7600 block of Dorchester Blvd., according to the office of U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein in Baltimore.

According to the plea agreement entered Friday in U.S. District Court, Cheng employed as many as 12 cooks, waiters and other staff — five of whom were not permitted to live or work in the country — from February 2009 to February of this year.

She admitted that she did not require employees to show proper identification and proof of eligibility to work or to fill out income tax withholding forms, according to the agreement. She said she did not ask workers about their immigration status.

Police searching the restaurant Feb. 4 found several immigrants who were ineligible to work, according to the agreement. They told authorities that they were hired without proof of their eligibility. They said they were paid between $1,400 and $2,800 per month by cash or check without withholding for taxes.

Several of Cheng's employees lived in a house she owned in Columbia and were driven to and from the restaurant in an a van, according to the agreement.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 20.

jkanderson@baltsun.com

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryla ... +County%29

Maybe it's me, but it seems a majority of these raids conducted at oriental restaurants.