An arraignment date has been set on the superseding indictment recently filed against Chuy’s restaurant owners Mark Evenson and his son Christopher Evenson. The pair will be arrainged on November 9, 2012. The trial is set for April 23, 2013. They were indicted on 20 separate counts involving payroll tax fraud and harboring illegal aliens.
According to the indictment the Evenson’s knowingly hired illegal immigrants. They paid them “under the table” in cash and profited $400,000 dollars by not paying taxes and other costs associated with employment in the Chuy’s restaurants.
The investigation by Immigration and Customs, Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service, investigated the matter. The investigation began with an anonymous tip and culminated in raids at 15 Chuy’s restaurants in Arizona and California.
The Evenson’s companies, Adobe Management Services, LLC, and Valley Management Services LLC operated four restaurants in Tucson, seven in Phoenix, and four in California.
The indictment alleges that during the time of the conspiracy, the Evenson’s employed approximately 360 undocumented entrants in their Chuy’s restaurants.
In one case, after a consumer complained that the restaurant was employing illegal workers, the elder Evenson told an employee “If we throw some American people in there, maybe that’ll just shut up.” Evenson then told the illegal employee that “I just need to get you off the show floor. I need you to hide in the kitchen.” Allegedly the Evensons hired mostly undocumented workers for the kitchen staff.
The companies’ bookkeeper, Diane Ingrid Strehlow, will be sentenced to her role in the conspiracy on November 27, 2012.