Judge rules Vinton restaurant owners are flight risk, should stay in jail

The owners of Chinese restaurants in Vinton and Toledo will remain in jail awaiting sentencing on immigration and tax charges after searches last week turned up evidence of continued efforts to evade state and federal taxes.

Chan Gia Duong and Phung "Polly" Long were free awaiting sentencing on federal charges of harboring illegal immigrants. Duong also pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return, and Long to making false statements to receive Medicare benefits.

What was scheduled to be Long's sentencing this morning instead became a hearing on Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles' order revoking the couple's bond.

"There is evidence that suggests the defendants are at risk of flight," Scoles said in ordering Duong and Long held in the Linn County Jail. "It seems to me they can't reasonably complain if they're not released a second time."

Clad in jail coveralls and shackled at the wrists and ankles, the pair listened over headphones to an interpreter's translation of the proceedings.

The two have been in jail since late May 4, the day after raids at the Peony Chinese Restaurant in Vinton and the Peony II in Toledo and at their Vinton home turned up thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars, cashier's checks, and handwritten ledgers showing the restaurants had taken in more than their owners were declaring for tax purposes.

The discovery of $166,100 in cashier's checks at the Vinton home indicated Duong and Long intended to leave the area before her sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Reinert said.

"It means one thing," said Reinert. "It means flight."

Last week's raids came after an investigation by IRS and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. The agents were tipped by local residents that staff at the two restaurants didn't use cash registers, making it easier to hide income, ICE Special Agent Christopher Cantrell testified.

Investigators in plan clothes who visited the restaurants in March and April didn't receive receipts for cash payment, Cantrell said. When they asked for a receipt at the Toledo location, they received a wait check, not one from a cash register.

Cantrell said those actions could cover the owners' "skimming" the restaurants' revenue.

Duong claimed income of $20,000 to $25,000 from each of the restaurants, Cantrell said, but listed $85,000 as his annual income when applying for a car loan.

The restaurants were first raided in November 2008. Two men were arrested at each location, one from China and three from Mexico, were held for being in the country illegally.

Charges based on evidence from last week's searches haven't been filed yet.

Duong's sentencing is set for July 3.