MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) – The owner and manager of well-known New York City pizza shop Grimaldi’s in Manhattan stole thousands of dollars worth of wages from at least seven workers, District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Thursday.
Owner Anthony Piscina, 63, and manager Frank Santora, 71, face charges for allegedly stealing up to $30,000 in wages from workers at Grimaldi’s Limelight Original Coal Fired Brick Oven Pizza on Sixth Avenue, authorities said.
The owner and manager allegedly paid workers well under minimum wage – one busboy was promised $10 per hour and was never paid, Bragg said. Piscina and Santora stand accused of giving employees paychecks that bounced, paying small sums over apps and making appointments to settle wages but never showing up, Bragg said.
Bragg announced the charges Thursday while standing in front of text messages sent from Grimaldi’s workers pleading for their payment.
“I sure need money to pay my rent please,” one text read.
According to the criminal indictment, Piscina allegedly told one employee who threatened to hire an attorney: “I’ve got three complaints on me. The state is not gonna do a thing.”
“[These are] wages that they were entitled to for doing honest days’ work,” Bragg said. “In text messages to the defendants, the victims made it devastatingly clear how desperately they needed these funds.”
Both men were charged with scheming to defraud and failing to pay wages in accordance with labor law, according to Bragg.
An initial phoned-in complaint, made last year to Bragg’s Worker Protection Hotline, kicked off the criminal investigation.
Prosecutors don’t think the “scheme” stops at these seven workers. Bragg on Thursday solicited any workers who believe they were cheated at Grimaldi’s to contact the unit at 646-712-0298.
If convicted, they face up to four years in prison and restitution of unpaid wages. They’re due back in court on May 1.
A worker in 2014 accused Grimaldi’s of cheating them out of over $5,400 in wages, according to a wage theft monitor provided by Documented.
A Grimaldi’s pizzeria in Brooklyn, which is tied to a slew of Grimaldi’s locations across the country, has also been accused of wage theft totaling $59,463 from seven workers, according to the wage theft monitor.
The Manhattan location, meanwhile, has also bumped against city authorities for outstanding tax bills ranging from $14,445 to $35,660 at a time, New York Eater reported. The debt briefly shuttered the Sixth Avenue shop in 2018 owing over $117,000, Eater reported.
A study by Documented and ProPublica found that from 2017 to 2021, over $203 million in wages had been stolen from about 127,000 New York workers.
Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter from Los Angeles who has covered local news for years. She has been with PIX11 since 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter.
