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12.05.2008

saigon grill owners arrested on criminal charges

The owners of the two Saigon Grill restaurants in Manhattan were arrested this week on more than 400 criminal charges, including violating minimum-wage laws, falsifying business records and defrauding the state's unemployment insurance system: Restaurant Owners Charged on More Than 400 Counts.

Simon and Michelle Nget, the owners of the popular pan-Asian restaurants, pleaded not guilty to those charges as well as to charges of demanding illegal payments from their deliverymen, tampering with witnesses and creating fraudulent records to cover up their actions.

Back in October, a federal judge ordered the Ngets to pay $4.6 million in back pay and damages to 36 delivery workers. That's justice. Now it's time to face some criminal charges!

They were each charged with 151 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, 45 counts of tampering with physical evidence, and 46 counts of offering a false instrument for filing. All are class E felonies, which carry a sentence of up to four years in prison. Good luck with that, Simon and Michelle.