An owner of a Temple Terrace Indian restaurant has agreed to plead guilty to immigration crimes.
Jitenda Kumar Chaudhary and his business partners opened the restaurant Cilantro Indian Cuisine at 11009 N. 56th St. in October 2007. The restaurant seats 200 and has a private banquet room that accommodates 75 people, according to a review written shortly after it opened.
According to a signed plea agreement, Chaudhary came to the United States in October 2002 as a crew member on a cruise ship. He had a limited visa that permitted him only to leave the ship to return to India. He did not leave the United States.
In 2003 and 2005, he purchased fraudulent immigration documents that represented he was lawfully in the United States as a nonimmigrant religious worker.
After opening the restaurant, Chaudhary and his business partners leased apartments to house at least six restaurant employees from different countries who were in the United States illegally, the plea agreement states. Chaudhary and his partners put the rent and utilities in their names to conceal the illegal status of their employees.
Chaudhary has agreed to plead guilty to harboring six or more illegal aliens, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison per alien or 60 years, and possessing and using fraudulent immigration documents, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.
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