Chuy’s restaurant owner Christopher Evenson pled guilty last week in case brought against he and his father for payroll tax fraud and harboring illegal aliens. Evenson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to impeded the IRS, and “engaging in a pattern and practice of hiring illegal aliens.”
Mark Evenson was found incompetent to stand trial.
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 government alleged 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.
In 2012, Diane Strehlow, former bookkeeper for Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler restaurants, was sentenced to one year of probation.