Ex-restaurateur sentenced for hiring illegal workers
The second member of a family that owns a chain of Asian restaurants in Maine has been sentenced to prison for charges related to hiring and housing undocumented workers.
The Bangor Daily News reported that Mei Ya Zhang, 29, of Waterville, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison by a U.S. District Judge after pleading guilty to three counts: providing housing for illegal immigrants for commercial gain, conspiracy to falsify federal tax returns and money laundering conspiracy, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Zhang, who was arrested last year, was the former manager of the Brewer’s Twin Supper Buffet, which was raided by local and federal law enforcement officers in 2011. Law enforcement also raided other restaurants in Maine owned by the Zhang family.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Zhang brought in illegal immigrants to work at her Brewer restaurant between 2006 and 2011.
“[Zhang] had them work six days per week, eight to 10 ½ hours per day, housed them in squalid conditions at a residence on Elm Street in Brewer, transported them back and forth each day to work, paid them under the table with cash generated illegally by the employment of undocumented aliens and filed numerous false quarterly employment tax returns in which the undocumented aliens were not disclosed and employment taxes were not properly withheld or paid,” according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Zhang was actually the first family member to be charged in connection with an investigation that began in 2006, although her sister, Mei Juan Zhang, was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison for similar charges in March.
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