Posted on 06/09/2005 4:34:13 PM PDT by Asphalt
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Authorities raided 17 Chinese restaurants around Michigan that they suspect of ducking millions of dollars in taxes and importing undocumented workers as a "modern version of indentured servants."
Search warrants were also served at 21 homes of suspected undocumented Chinese workers. Dozens were involved in the scheme, State Police Lt. Curt Schram said.
"It cost them X number of dollars to come to this country and they're trying to work off that debt," Schram said.
Investigators believe one family or related families own the restaurants, which are mostly in the central and west-central areas of the Lower Peninsula, the statement said.
Nearly 20 workers were living in one house with "very spartan" furnishings in Grand Rapids, Schram said.
The owners are suspected of claiming only a third of their actual income and sending part of the proceeds out of the country, while shortchanging the state and federal governments of millions of dollars in sales, unemployment and use taxes, police said. About $400,000 in cash was seized.
Nine people were arrested at a Chinese buffet in Petoskey, and two people...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
I believe it. There's a Chinese restaurant in our town we frequent and every single time we pay for our meal in cash, they fail to ring it up. And I'd bet these aren't isolated incidences.
Think about this gang next time you bite into a heaping plate of Mo Go Gai Pan (sp?), and keep telling yourself it isn't dog meat, LOL!
Living here in "indentured" conditions beats living in China, but they've got to pay their dues.
Around here the Koreans do that when you buy cold medicines.
The strange thing- after an hour they've got to raid them again.
We have chinese buffets popping up on every corner, yet they all are empty.
Wonder if John McCain can offer a Federal solution?/
hehe
LOL!!
ping
FWIW, I have no problem with that and hope they get off scott free on those charges........We should all be so lucky!
However, "Millions" sounds like a real stretch of the imagination....
But I still love Chinee Foo!
Michigan? I wonder how many Chinese restaurants have opened in Mexico during the last five years. The Chinese Army has been opening "bases" all over Central/South America with little said by politicians and press. Someday, somehow, we'll find out. May be just a little late.
Immigrants aren't the ONLY problem with Chinese restaurants here in MI...
A couple of months ago the state troops pulled over a couple of trucks headed for the Ann Arbor area. They were shipping foodstuffs for Chinese restaurants in Washtenaw County...except the officers found defrosted chickens dripping on produce, unrefrigerated fish and meat stored with vegetables...EWWWWWW.
I cheer every time I see a semi pulled over on I-94. Those troopers have found pot and other drugs mixed in with watermelons...AND they help keep the homicidal drivers in check.
We've got one chinese restaurant around here that's been caught with skinned cats in the freezer so many times, everybody calls it "the Cat-foo-young" place.
Odd that they didn't also add in state & federal payroll taxes. Bet the workers didn't pay state & federal inco es taxes, either.
If they were under reporting sales, you can bet the didn't forget to cook ALL the books to match.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.