A Massachusetts restaurant owner will plead guilty to evading $580,000 in federal and state employment taxes for paying employees “under the table” for seven years, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Marios Michalakis, 44, agreed to a plea deal last week to resolve six charges of failing to collect, report, or pay employment taxes to the IRS, and will have a plea hearing on Sept. 6, records show.
Michalakis is the owner of Amelia’s, an Italian restaurant in Stoughton, and the former operator of Sofia Italian Steakhouse in West Roxbury, which closed in 2024 according to media reports.
Prosecutors alleged that between January 2016 and December 2022 when Michalakis ran both restaurants, he paid his employees in unreported cash and checks as part of a tax evasion scheme.
Michalakis did not properly withhold income, social security, and Medicare taxes from employee wages, nor did he provide his employees with W-2 forms to report their wages to the IRS, prosecutors said.
According to reporting by El Planeta, Sofia Italian Steakhouse opened in 2009 in a partnership between Michalakis and his longtime business partner, Emilios Ventouris, who also had a stake in Amelia’s, which opened in 2014.
Together, they also ran Alfredo’s Restaurant & Lounge in Quincy during its later years, according to The Patriot Ledger, helming the restaurant until its closure in 2016.
Ventouris could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
A lawyer for Michalakis did not immediately return a phone call for comment. The charges carry a penalty of up to five years in prison with three years supervised release, restitution payments, and a fine of $250,000.
After reaching a plea agreement, US Attorney Leah B. Foley recommended a sentence on the lower end of what is allowed, records show.
Court filings indicate that Michalakis will owe restitution of at least $515,815 for unpaid federal taxes, $69,143 in state taxes, and at least $1.9 million to the Small Business Administration, with $250,000 of the payments due 60 days after signing the plea.
Bryan Hecht can be reached at bryan.hecht@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @bhechtjournalism.
Dining and Cooking