MARTINEZ — A woman who authorities say used purported ties to “the underworld” to threaten workers from exposing the rampant mistreatment of employees at four Bay Area restaurants was recently arrested thousands of miles from California.
Shortly after her arrest, Lin Jiang — one of eight defendants in a notorious and widespread labor theft and tax fraud case based in Brentwood — accepted a plea deal and a one-year jail sentence. As part of the November deal, Jiang also agreed to serve three years probation and perform 100 hours of community service, in exchange for a guilty plea to one count of grand theft.
The investigation implicated former owners and managers of Golden Dragon Buffet in Brentwood, New Dragon Buffet in San Leandro, Golden Wok Buffet in Roseville and Kokyo Sushi Buffet in Hayward, in a pattern of inhumane treatment of workers that included wage theft, abuse, tax fraud, and forms of racial segregation. State investigators estimate they committed $4.5 million in wage theft from 2009-2013, and cheated California out of another $2 million in taxes.
Last year, Contra Costa prosecutors secured a 28-count indictment against eight defendants, citing testimony from former workers who said they were forced to live in segregated dorms, worked 12 to 16 hour days for less than the minimum wage and no overtime pay, and were given “home remedies” for illnesses — like coffee and cigarettes — in lieu of medical treatment or sick leave.
The case was brought to authorities’ attention in 2012, after two workers complained to the Department of Industrial Relations and secured $20,000 judgements in their favor, which were not paid, according to court records. When the case was turned over to criminal investigators, they discovered that the owners were falsifying tax forms as well as underpaying workers.
After more workers complained to the state, Jiang threatened one of them, saying she would use her ties to “the underworld” to get revenge, according to prosecutors.
Three of the restaurants’ owners and operators, Yu Chen, Feng Gu, and Rongdi Zheng, were each sentenced to 3½ years in prison in June, and ordered to pay $4.5 million to former workers, along with another $1.5 million to the state of California in owed taxes. Another of the defendants, Shao Rong Zhang, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of enforcing a policy on behalf of her employer that employees not report minimum wage violations, and was sentenced to 120 days in jail.
In late May, prosecutors dropped the charges against Zhou Xian Chen, who was thought to be less involved. Defendants Brandon Quang, as well as Guo Cai Feng, reportedly learned of the charges and fled the area before they were arrested. Jiang, Yu Chen’s sister-in-law, also eluded authorities until her arrest in Wisconsin.