NEW YORK
A federal judge sentenced the franchisee of Papa John’s pizza fast-food restaurants, Abdul Jamil Khokhar, to 60 days in jail after he plead guilty to wage theft involving falsifying business records, according to officials.
Khokhar was also ordered to pay $230,000 in restitution to underpaid workers at his Papa John’s franchises, officials said.
BMY Foods also plead guilty to this charge.
“Wage theft is a crime and a Papa John’s franchisee is now going to jail for cheating his employees and trying to cover it up,” said New York State Attorney General A.G. Schneiderman. “My office will do everything in its power to protect the rights of New York’s workers and make sure that all employers – including fast food restaurants – follow the law.”
In July of this year, law enforcement arrested Khokhar, the owner of nine Papa John’s Pizza franchises in the Bronx, and his company, BMY Foods, Inc., for failing to pay workers minimum wage and overtime.
“The Attorney General’s successful criminal prosecution of this employer, together with the Department of Labor’s civil consent judgment against the enterprise, show that employers will not get away with covering up violations of state and federal wage laws,” said Schneiderman. “We will continue to work together to prevent such law-breaking and obtain proper compensation for workers.”
Both New York and federal law require employers to pay workers at least the minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime at one-and-one-half times their regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of forty in any given workweek, according to authorities.
New York’s current minimum wage is $8.75 per hour, and the federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour; employers in New York must pay the higher rate, officials said.
In addition, officials said employers must report all wages paid to employees on tax returns on a quarterly basis and must make contributions to the State Unemployment Insurance Fund based upon the reported wages.
Khokhar and BMY Foods, Inc. failed to pay overtime to their workers.
Instead, they paid workers the same – “straight time” regular rate of pay for all hours worked – including hours in excess of forty and they created fictitious names for employees to use in their computerized timekeeping system to hide this practice, authorities said.
In a further attempt to conceal this scheme, the defendants filed fraudulent tax returns with the State of New York that omitted the cash payments made under fictitious names. Khokhar created the dual name scheme after becoming aware that he was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor for wage violations.
The U.S. Department of Labor secured a civil settlement in July 2015 requiring Khokhar to pay $230,000 in liquidated damages and $50,000 in civil monetary penalties, in addition to the $230,000 in restitution for unpaid wages paid to the Attorney General’s Office upon the Order of the Court at sentencing.
Khokhar’s Papa John’s franchises also will be required to designate and create procedures for an internal compliance officer and will be subject to independent auditing of the franchises’ practices, authorities said.