The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said a criminal court judge ordered Avalon business owner Yueh Mei Tucey to pay $1.5 million in unpaid wages to dozens of employees; Tucey delivered the check to the court at a restitution and sentencing hearing on Sept. 28.
The court also ordered $96,000 to be paid to the California Employment Development Department for underreporting worker wages; the DA said the unpaid wages covered work at Tucey’s hotels and restaurants between 2008 and 2022.
On Sept. 15, 2025, Tucey pleaded no contest to seven felony counts of filing false and fraudulent returns, six felony counts of failure to pay taxes and one felony count of conspiracy to commit wage theft; the case was prosecuted by the DA’s Economic and Labor Justice Unit as case BA518809.
Los Angeles County District Attorney said, “This significant restitution payment represents hundreds of hours in unpaid labor, where vulnerable victims, many of whom were immigrants, were exploited for years at hotels and restaurants while being grossly underpaid far below what is legally mandated by the California Labor Code. This case resulted in not just a conviction, but economic justice for the victims, many of whom have been waiting nearly two decades to be paid the wages they are owed for their hard work. We look forward to working with our partners to disburse the funds to the victims. I thank Deputy District Attorney Alice Kurs for ensuring that justice was served and for assisting victims throughout the criminal justice process. I also thank California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower, who has been an invaluable partner in protecting employees from wage theft and holding employers who break labor laws accountable.”
California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said, “This case began with a call to our public information line. These workers had the courage to speak up and report violations, and their actions helped make this outcome possible. This $1.5 million recovery is an important step toward getting money back to the workers who earned it. I am grateful for our partnership with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and other enforcement partners who worked with us to hold unscrupulous employers accountable. Workers deserve to be paid for every hour they work, and we will continue to use every tool available to protect their rights and recover the wages they are owed.”
The California Labor Commissioner’s Office’s criminal investigation, the DA said, revealed a scheme that used payroll aliases to hide overtime and had employees working at multiple businesses in the same day, producing shifts of up to 18 hours.
The DA said investigators included the California Labor Commissioner’s Office Criminal Investigation Unit with assistance from investigative units of the California Employment Development Department, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration and the Franchise Tax Board; Deputy District Attorney Alice Kurs of the Consumer Protection Division’s Economic and Labor Justice Unit prosecuted the case. Legal representation for the victims was provided by Thai Community Development Center and Bet Tzedek Legal Services.
The DA’s office described its Economic and Labor Justice Unit as created in 2023 to investigate and prosecute unpaid wages, exploitative labor practices and human trafficking; the office said the unit has since investigated and prosecuted cases affecting hundreds of victims and involving millions of dollars in lost wages, taxes and unemployment payments across Southern California.
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Nathan J. Hochman
District Attorney of Los Angeles County
Named once in this story.
Portrait: Los Angeles County District Attorney / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
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