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Prosecutors seek 4-year prison sentence for former restaurant owner
Investigators first learned that Madison’s Bistro co-owner George Argue was stealing tax money in early 2007, but he reneged on an agreement to repay the money and instead stole more, Montgomery County prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum in which they request a four-year prison term for the restaurant owner.
Argue, 62, of Washington Twp., is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 12, in the courtroom of Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Frances E. McGee. Argue pleaded guilty on Aug. 26 to four felony counts of tax fraud in failing to forward to the state $171,831 in sales taxes collected from restaurant customers, and failing to forward to the state nearly $41,968 in income taxes withheld from employees’ paychecks, over a four-year period starting in 2005. The four felony counts carry a maximum penalty of nine years in prison.
Argue has agreed to pay full restitution to the state in the amount of $213,799, assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor Josh Muennich said in his sentencing memorandum filed with the court. But Muennich said a four-year prison term is still appropriate for the seriousness of the crimes.
“This is not the case of a business owner making a simple mistake; this is a case of a business owner committing repeated violations of law even after being warned and being given numerous opportunities to make things right,” Muennich said.
Email and phone messages left for Argue’s attorney, David Williamson of Dayton, were not returned.
Last week, Judge McGee postponed sentencing for a week and acknowledged that the case “provides for me a dilemma.” The judge made reference to a thick folder containing what appeared to be dozens of letters that were written on Argue’s behalf, but then challenged Argue and his attorney to spend the week coming up with “hard evidence” why he deserved lenience in sentencing.
“You’re not off the hook,” the judge told Argue. “You’ve done something really, really bad, and you’ve hurt a lot of people.”
Several restaurant employees have had tax problems with the state because of Argue’s failure to forward the money he withheld from their paychecks, prosecutors said. Argue “has had numerous opportunities to demonstrate remorse, stop stealing, and begin to repay the state of Ohio. (He) utterly failed to take advantage of those opportunities; he continued to steal even after being confronted in February 2007,” the sentencing memorandum said.
Ohio Department of Taxation agents executed a search warrant at the restaurant in February 2007 following an investigation that revealed taxes were not being paid by the business, prosecutors said.
In April, Argue pleaded guilty in Kettering Municipal Court to keeping a place where alcohol was sold illegally and was fined $500. The charge followed a Jan. 14, 2010 raid by agents of the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Ohio Investigative Unit who were acting on a tip that Madison’s, at 5531 Far Hills Ave. in Washington Twp., was serving alcohol without a license. Madison’s Bistro did not reopen following the raid.
Argue and his wife Harriet operated Truffle’s Catering and formerly oversaw a restaurant of the same name in the Cross Pointe shopping center in Centerville as well as a Truffle’s Cafe in Town & Country Center in Kettering. In 2002, they purchased Thomato’s, formerly Kitty’s, in downtown Dayton and operated it for 14 months as Mediterra restaurant until closing it in October 2003. The couple opened Madison’s in late 2005.
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