Ex-owner of local IHOPs gets prison term

Though he had faced up to 40 years behind bars, the former owner of seven IHOP restaurants in northwest Ohio and Indiana was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison.

Tarek Elkafrawi, 57, of Middleton Township near Perrysburg pleaded guilty July 3 to 53 counts contained in a federal indictment charging him with a series of criminal schemes between 2003 and 2012 intended to defraud the government, corporate IHOP, an insurance company, and his own employees of millions of dollars.

He admitted to hiring in excess of 200 undocumented workers, giving some of them multiple identities so that they could work extra hours without being paid overtime and could make claims for Medicaid and other public assistance.

“This is not just a case involving the hiring of illegal aliens,” Duncan Brown, an assistant U.S. Attorney, told the court. “The hiring of illegal aliens was the base of the pyramid that led to a tip of money laundering.”

In between, Mr. Brown contended, were “deliberate and knowing” acts of identity fraud, identity theft, mail fraud, health-care fraud, and arson. Elkafrawi directed his managers to manipulate sales figures, salaries, and payroll to avoid paying taxes and lessen workers’ compensation premiums — all done for personal gain.