Restaurant needed loan after manager blew $300K at strip clubs in Georgia, feds say
A restaurant manager stole $300,000 — and splurged at Georgia strip clubs, federal officials said.
Thousands of dollars began to pour out of the restaurant “at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,” making it difficult for the Atlanta-area business to stay afloat, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
“The loss of this money caused a significant hardship to the restaurant and threatened the livelihood of its 40 employees and forced it to borrow COVID-relief funds to stay in business,” federal prosecutors wrote in a Jan. 5 news release.
Now, the manager is going to prison in the embezzlement case. An attorney believed to be representing him didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment on Jan. 6.
The case dates back to October 2020, when prosecutors said the manager was working at Houck’s Grille in Roswell, roughly 25 miles north of downtown Atlanta. At the time, he reportedly started bringing a restaurant-issued debit card to two Atlanta strip clubs.
“Ultimately, he visited the clubs more than 50 times during an 11-month period,” prosecutors said.
When the manager was first asked about the charges, he reportedly said one of the clubs was a business that handled online payments for the restaurant. But that was a lie, according to federal officials, who said he racked up more than 400 adult entertainment purchases worth over $300,000 on the company card.
In a court document, the man’s attorney said his client “did not steal the debit card but rather put unauthorized charges” on it. The man’s legal team asked for probation, citing his new job in the restaurant industry and other factors.
Instead, the 56-year-old was sentenced to more than two years in prison and ordered to pay restitution. He had pleaded guilty to wire fraud in September, officials said.
“This greedy defendant abused his position to fund his own lifestyle,” Keri Farley, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, wrote in the news release. “Because of his actions, the restaurant, and people he was chosen to lead suffered the impacts.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 6:38 AM with the headline "Restaurant needed loan after manager blew $300K at strip clubs in Georgia, feds say."
