Puerto Rico Restaurant Owners Indicted Over Minimum Wage Ripoff
SAN JUAN, P.R. - On March 2, 2017, a Federal Grand Jury in the District of
Puerto Rico returned an indictment charging José Manuel Abreu-Ramírez and
Milagros De los Santos-De Abreu with obstructing a U.S. Department of Labor
investigation into their failure to pay minimum wage and overtime to their em-
ployees at the restaurants José José and El Catador D’Abreu in violation of the
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Both restaurants were owned and operated
by the defendants and located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, Rosa Emilia Rodrí-
guez Vélez and Special Agent-in-Charge Michael Mikulka of the U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor, Office of Inspector General, New York Regional Office made
the announcement.
The 25 count Indictment charges Abreu-Ramírez and De los Santos with eight
counts of false statements to a federal agency, three counts of wire fraud, eight
counts of aggravated identity theft and five counts of tampering with a witness,
victim or informant by intimidation, threats, corrupt persuasion or misleading
conduct.
The allegations in the indictment indicate that instead of making payment to
the employees in the amounts the defendants had agreed to pay pursuant to an
investigation conducted by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department
of Labor and the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Labor,
the defendants made their employees endorse checks that had been issued to
prove compliance with federal law and then withheld the checks from the em-
ployees. Abreu‑Ramírez and De los Santos either cashed or deposited the end-
orsed checks into their own bank accounts and kept the funds for their own be-
nefit. The amounts Abreu‑Ramírez and De los Santos unlawfully retained from
their employees in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was appro-
ximately $23,448.47.
Read more: http://puertoricomonitor.blogspot.com.au/2017/03/restaurant-owners-indicted-over-minimum.html
