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A Pleasanton restaurateur couple has pleaded guilty to immigration, social security and tax evasion at their Bay Area restaurant chain, El Balazo, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag announced.
Marino Sandoval, 58, and his wife, Nicole Sandoval, 50, were arrested last November on charges that they hired illegal aliens, misused employees’ social security numbers and engaged in tax fraud between 2003 and 2005.
In pleading guilty Wednesday, the Sandovals admitted they were responsible for withholding federal taxes, including employment and unemployment taxes, from employee pay.
Nicole Sandoval told the court she under-reported employee wages to the payroll company she and her husband used to prepare tax returns. The pair admitted that, based upon their actions, the amount of employment taxes paid to the Internal Revenue Service was understated.
Marino Sandoval also admitted to hiring employees he knew were not legally allowed to work in this country. According to the plea agreement, between August 2007 and August 2008, Marino Sandoval employed more than 100 illegal aliens, many of whom were born outside the US.
In May 2008, agents with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) conducted a search of several El Balazo Restaurants where agents discovered 63 employees who were unauthorized to work in this country. Marino Sandoval later rehired more than 10 of them, despite being informed of their identities in a letter from ICE agents.
In addition to the tax charge, Nicole Sandoval pleaded guilty to misusing employee social security numbers. Between 2002 and 2007, she submitted employer’s quarterly contribution and wage reports to the Social Security Administration, which included the names and social security numbers of undocumented alien workers.
In court, Nicole Sandoval admitted that she knew the numbers were not the social security numbers assigned to the employees.
The Sandovals owned and operated the El Balazo restaurants with Marino Sandoval’s brother, Francisco Sandoval, who pleaded guilty to tax charges last August. They face sentences of up to 20 years in prison and more than a half million dollars in fines.
At one point, El Balazo had two locations in Pleasanton, and one each in Danville and San Ramon.
Aliens! Someone call the Men In Blaaaack!
You can kill people and get away with it, but don’t cheat the federal government…they’ll put you away.
So much for helping small business and creating jobs in America- it’s not like they were engaged in drug trafficking or child prostitution: all they were doing was literally, feeding our habit for good & inexpensive Mexican food. Tax fraud aside, this is a waste of time & money.
I dare any “real American” to take those jobs and excel at it- not happening in our society…
omg
openminded needs to change his handle to headinthesandguy! please educate yourself on the case…they cheated and screwed their employees to line their own pockets.
you must not get out much, because I know lots of “real Americans” that would do that work.
Open Minded Guy- Love to hear someone in our town is open-minded, but isn’t “creating jobs” supposed to both give people work while creating necessary revenue for taxes to pay for our police, schools, etc.? I agree that US citizens probably wouldn’t work as hard for the pay they would receive at restaurants like El Balazo, so it’s hard to blame the restauranteurs for wanting good, cheap labor. We need to be willing to pay more for our food so restaurants can pay a decent wage & not feel they have to hire illegals to keep prices down. Don’t forget that their kids are enrolled in our underfunded schools and their parents aren’t paying into it. In an ideal world there would be more workers’ visas, the workers could pay their share into our economy and their kids could rightfully attend our great schools. I truly can’t blame them for wanting a better life for themselves and their kids, but not paying income tax just hurts our economy. JMO
This couple knew the game they were playing had high stakes and unfortunately they lost especially since this is the second go-around.
My sister subs in Redwood City. Many of those who “want a better life” here—turn their backs on OUR flag during the pledge and cram their hands in pockets. In the elementary schools—open derision. and hate of the USA is commonly spewed by Latino groups both born here or illegals. Wake up.
These people were tax cheats! They were ripping-off the govt. (us), cheating their employees and creating an unfair advantage for themselves against businesses who were following the rules. On top of that they continued to break the law even after they had been raided by ICE. By the way, El Balazo was never “inexpensive” for a taqueria so quit making excuses for them – they were greedy. And if you get out of California once and a while (which I do) there are plenty of legal workers out there working just as hard to eek out a living doing the same jobs that Americans supposedly won’t do.
These people lied and stole and now they are paying the penalty for their actions. Why is it a surprise? Or is punishment simply to be reserved for “them” not for “us”? They could have paid their taxes, they could have hired legal employees, they could have paid those employees justly. They chose not to do that. Greed is a sin for a reason.
My grandparents were immigrants who became citizens, paid their taxes and raised their children to work hard and respect the laws of their new country. I have no problem with legal immigration. However, illegal immigrants most often do not pay taxes, do not take our driving tests and often do not spend their money in this country.
The people that owned El Balazo took advantage of this country as well as the people who worked for them. They do not deserve sympathy and should do the time for their crimes!!