News : Peony restaurant owners charged with conspiring to harbor illegal aliens

Chan Gia Duong, 43, and Phung Ca Long, 41, restaurant owners from Vinton, have been charged with one count of conspiracy to harbor aliens for commercial gain. Duong faces an additional charge of filing a false tax return. Long faces an additional charge of making false statements to Medicaid relating to health care. The charges are contained in Informations filed on October 27, 2010, in United States District Court in Cedar Rapids.

Duong owns and operates Peony Family Restaurants in Vinton and Toledo. In November of 2008, federal officers from the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raided the restaurants, taking some workers into custody. The raid took place during the lunch hour; the restaurant was closed by officers and customers who had planned to eat inside the restaurant in Vinton were sent away with take-out boxes.

The wording of the official federal complaint is as follows:

"Between about October 2004 and November 2008, Chan Gia Duong knowingly and intentionally combined, conspired and confederated and agreed with others known and unknown to the U.S. Attorney to harbor multiple illegal aliens for commercial advantage and person financial gain knowingly and in reckless disregard of the fact that multiple illegal aliens had come to, entered and remained in the U.S. in violation of law."

Duong is accused of harboring these illegals by "providing employment, transportation and living accommodations."

The tax fraud complaint accuses Duong of filing a 1040 form for 2007 that claims only $24,252 in gross adjusted income, when his actual amount was $386,763.

Long was additionally charged with providing Iowa Medicaid with false information to gain health care benefits resulting in a loss of $28,156.40.

If convicted, Duong faces a possible maximum sentence of 13 years’ imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, $200 in special assessments, and up to 4 years of supervised release following any imprisonment. Duong would also have to pay costs of prosecution for the tax charge. Long faces a maximum of 15 years’ imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, $200 in special assessments, and up to 6 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

In addition to these criminal charges, the United States has sought the civil forfeiture of real and personal property of Duong and Long. This includes real estate in Vinton and real estate in California, Florida, and Illinois. The United States has also sought the forfeiture of just over $750,000 in cash, two automobiles, and over 50 pieces of jewelry. These civil cases will proceed separately from the criminal cases.

Duong’s and Long’s first appearances in federal court in Cedar Rapids for initial appearances have yet to be set.

As with any criminal case, a charge is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Patrick J. Reinert and was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, Internal Revenue Service, and Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file numbers for the criminal cases are 10-cr-111 and 10-cr-112. The case file numbers for the civil cases are 09-cv-3, 09-cv-50, 09-cv-14, and 09-cv-39.