Notorious Royal India Restaurant Owners Charged With Wage Theft
Last week, the former owners of the Kirkland restaurant Royal India, Mohammad Rashid Bhatti and Aeisha Bhatti, were charged with 10 counts of felony wage theft by state prosecutors, who say the father and daughter duo failed to pay workers nearly $45,000 from 2021 to 2023. The pair pleaded not guilty at an arraignment, according to a release from the state Department of Labor and Industry (L&I).
If you've heard of Royal India, it might be because it was in the Seattle Times last year when the paper investigated L&I's failure to collect stolen wages and used the restaurant as an example of a business frequently accused of stealing from workers. According to the Times story, Royal India's two locations in Lynnwood and Kirkland 'have been the subjects of at least 37 wage complaints from workers since 2018,' more than any other non-chain restaurant in Washington State. At the time, L&I 'has collected $42,051 from the Bhattis since 2018 out of $121,662 owed in wages, interest and penalties,' the Times reported.
Some Royal India employees contacted a worker's rights group called the Seattle Solidarity Network, which organized a picket line outside the restaurant in 2023 and even created a website devoted to documenting the restaurant's supposed misdeeds, including an alleged rat infestation that spread to other tenants at the strip mall and unpaid taxes. The Times reported that the King and Snohomish county health departments cited both locations for code violations, including 'black mold in the ice machine.' The Kirkland location closed in 2024 after city inspectors shut it down for having an inadequate fire suppression system in its kitchen hood. The Lynnwood location closed before reopening under new ownership with the name Dastoor.
In the case of the investigation that led to felony charges, L&I went through Royal India's finances and concluded 'they had the ability to pay their employees but didn't,' according to the agency press release, which continued: 'During the investigation, it was discovered that some complainants were also tasked with doing work for Aeisha Bhatti's other business, Marigold Design House. Additional instances of alleged wage theft were discovered during the investigation, including a nanny hired by Aeisha Bhatti who was allegedly not paid for her work.'
Many wage theft cases are settled in civil lawsuits or addressed in the normal L&I process. Felony wage theft cases are 'relatively rare,' an L&I spokesperson told the Times, but the agency can refer cases to the state AG if it finds 'what appears to be a clear intent to withhold wages from workers.'
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Los Angeles Times
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Reactions to Padilla incident fall mostly along party lines
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