Feds: Fraud ‘ assembly line’ found in Hu’s home
Celebrity Chef Tony Hu grew his business empire out of Chinatown.
But the feds say he committed fraud from the comfort of his own living room.
Agents searched Hu’s home in October 2014 and discovered “what can best be described as an assembly line for the doctoring of records,” prosecutors claim. On Hu’s couch, they found piles of falsified restaurant receipts, as well as receipts waiting to be altered. On the floor were piles of records waiting to be destroyed.
“[ Hu] built a world- renowned restaurant empire and came to be known as ‘ the Mayor of Chinatown’ for his business and political prowess,” Assistant U. S. Attorney William Ridgway wrote in a memo filed in federal court late Monday. “But beneath that business success — and the political clout that came with it— was a deeply rooted fraud.”
Hu, 49, pleaded guilty last May to wire fraud and money laundering and faces sentencing before U. S. District Judge Amy St. Eve on Nov. 18. He is likely to face between 41 and 51 months in prison under the terms of his plea agreement. However, Hu’s attorney is asking the judge for probation and community service. He said Hu simply got caught up in a pervasive Chinatown culture of cash and tax dodging.
“Tony created a line of restaurants that brought comfort to immigrants and opened the eyes of others,” defense attorney Sheldon Zenner wrote in his own memo. “He then gave back: to charitable causes, to civic organizations, and to friends, family, and the community. Tony failed, however, to reject the way of doing business that surrounded him.”
The famous restaurateur has admitted he cooked the books, underreporting gross sales by more than $ 9 million and dodging more than $ 1 million in Illinois taxes while routinely gladhanding with politicians trying to run a cash- strapped state. Politicians of all stripes have posed for photographs with Hu, including Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and his Democratic predecessor, Pat Quinn. Mayor Rahm Emanuel once appointed him to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, but he is no longer a member.
Since Hu pleaded guilty, his attorney says his client “sold a handful of his cherished restaurants to help him pay” $ 1,087,674 in restitution owed to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
The feds publicly raided Hu’s restaurants, as well as his South Michigan Avenue condo, in October 2014. Six months later, the Chicago Sun- Times first reported authorities’ suspicions that Hu was cheating on his taxes. The feds had tailed Hu in his black Mercedes- Benz as he drove from his condo to Chinatown, and they even dined at his restaurants to get a closer look at the computer systems and receipts.