Sawa Sushi owner gets jail over taxes, illegal immigrants

app.com
Written by
Michael L. Diamond | Staff Writer
5:27 PM, Nov. 30, 2011

The owner and manager of the Sawa Sushi Asian restaurant in Eatontown, who harbored undocumented workers and failed to pay payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, was sentenced Wednesday to 20 months in prison, authorities said.

Mou Chor Tung, 45, of Colts Neck, pleaded guilty to housing undocumented workers in two Long Branch homes that he owned, and failing to collect and pay $263,523 in payroll taxes from 2007 to 2010, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

His brother-in-law, Sin Ching Chang, 35, of Long Branch, the owner and manager of Sawa Sushi in Long Branch, was sentenced to 24 months probation for failing to collect and pay payroll taxes in 2007 of more than $57,048, authorities said.

The two were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi in Newark.

Authorities said the owners were responsible for collecting and paying payroll taxes – money withheld from the restaurants’ employees to cover Social Security, Medicare and income taxes.

Tung, also known as Kenny Tung, hired at least 14 workers who were in the U.S. unlawfully, according to court documents.

He housed at least 10 workers in a home on Hamilton Avenue that he bought in 2004. And he housed at least three workers in a home on Lippincott Avenue that he bought in 2010, according to court documents.

He allowed several workers to use Social Security numbers that were issued to other people. He paid them in the identities of the Social Security numbers’ true owners. And he provided workers with transportation to the restaurant using company-owned vehicles, court documents said.

A third Sawa partner, Peter J. Wagar, pleaded guilty in September to failing to pay taxes to the IRS and fraudulently securing Social Security benefits. He has yet to be sentenced.

In addition to the prison sentence, Cecchi fined Tung $10,000. She fined Chang $3,000.

Michael L. Diamond; 732-643-4038;

http://www.app.com/article/20111130/NJB ... 004/NEWS01