2 Southampton Princess Diner Employees Blew Whistle On Owner, Manager: Cops

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — An investigation into the owner and manager of the Princess Diner in Southampton — who were charged with stealing more than $82,000 from workers — was set into motion after two employees allegedly went to police and reported what was happening, police said.

On Tuesday, New York State Attorney General Eric. T. Schneiderman announced the indictment and arrest of Suffolk County residents Richard Bivona and John Kalogeras, a press release from Schneiderman's office said.

Bivona is the new owner of the Princess Diner and Kalogeras, its longtime former owner, is now manager.

Bivona and Kalogeras were charged with repeatedly failing to pay 13 restaurant workers more than $82,000 in wages and allegedly scheming to defraud those workers by continually lying that they would receive full compensation, Schneiderman said.

Bivona and Kalogeras are each charged with separate counts of harassment for intimidating and threatening workers and their families when the workers asked to be paid, Schneiderman said.

According to Southampton Town Police, the employees told authorities that they were "not receiving proper compensation from their employer. A meeting in January of 2017, between Southampton Town Police, several additional employees, as well as New York State Department of Labor revealed that 13 employees were reportedly not receiving proper compensation for their work and were reportedly threatened and intimidated by Bivona and Kalogeras."

Initially, Southampton Town Police charged Bivona with menacing related to threatening one of the victims' family members, police said.

“A worker’s most basic right is the right to be paid for his or her work,” Schneiderman said. “These defendants allegedly engaged in a long-running scheme to not only steal their employees’ hard-earned money, but to intimidate and harass their victims when they attempted to speak up. We will not allow New York workers to be exploited and demeaned.”

According to the indictment and statements made during Tuesday's arraignment, between August 15, 2016, and December 31, 2016, Bivona assumed ownership of the Princess Diner from Kalogeras, who stayed on as manager to run the establishment's day-to-day operations at 32 Montauk Highway in Southampton.

Restaurant employees, including cooks, dishwashers, bussers and servers — many of whom had worked at the diner for more than 10 years — continued to work under Bivona, Schneiderman said.

"The workers were allegedly paid far less than minimum wage and were often not paid any of their hourly wages on a weekly basis or at all," according to a statement issued by Schneiderman's office.

Prosecutors also allege that none of the workers received overtime pay of time-and-a-half for their work, despite regularly working more than 40 hours per week, the release said.

Bivona and Kalogeras allegedly "made repeated promises to the workers that payment was imminent and asked the workers to be patient; however, after the workers waited for weeks to be paid, payment was sporadic or never came at all," the release from Schneiderman's office said. "Bivona and Kalogeras would also allegedly intimidate and threaten workers and their families if they spoke up and asked for their wages."

Defendants Bivona and RJT Food & Restaurant, LLC are separately charged with failing to secure workers’ compensation coverage, failing to make unemployment insurance contributions to the New York State Department of Labor Unemployment Insurance Fund and failing to provide proper employment records to the NYS Department of Labor, Schneiderman said.

The 35-count indictment filed in Suffolk County charges all three defendants — Bivona, Kalogeras and RJT Food & Restaurant, LLC — with 9 counts of third degree grand larceny, a felony, one count of fourth degree grand larceny, a felony, one count of first degree scheme to defraud, a felony, three counts of petty larceny, a misdemeanor, and 13 counts of failure to pay wages in accordance with the labor law, a misdemeanor, Schneiderman said.

According to Doug Cohen, spokesman for the Attorney General's office, while the status of workers is not questioned during an investigation, the issue of immigrants who may be afraid to speak up for fear of being fired or deported is one that has been the focus of discussions in the Southampton area.

"We've had a lot of community roundtables to get the word out," Cohen said. "We are aware of the problem and trying to convene people in the community to deal with it."

On Saturday, Sister Margaret Smyth of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate discussed the issue of East End immigrants who lose wages due to abuse by their employers. She said she goes to court to collect unpaid wages for those immigrants.

The investigation was handled by Investigator Melissa Kaplan and Supervising Investigator Sylvia Rivera, under the supervision of Deputy Chief Investigator John McManus and Chief Dominick Zarrella, the release said.

The New York State Department of Labor, New York State Workers' Compensation Board, Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and Southampton Town Police were all involved in the investigation, said Schneiderman, who thanked them.

Neither John Carmen, attorney for Bivona and the corporation, nor Robert Shaltz, attorney for Kalogeras, could immediately be reached for comment.