Former employees of Roberto Delledonne have accused the Rye Brook restaurateur of embezzlement for allegedly stealing tips in the weeks before Remi restaurant, his prestigious midtown Manhattan restaurant, shut down in 2019.
Twenty-eight former employees are asking U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains to disallow Delledonne from using bankruptcy to discharge his debts, in an adversary proceeding filed Sept. 2.
Delledonne petitioned for personal Chapter 7 liquidation in June, declaring $17,270 in assets and more than $5.7 million in liabilities.
He cited $2.1 million he personally guaranteed to Remi’s landlord, as well as tax and legal obligations for the restaurant. This past January, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge calculated that he owed $871,395 to 21 former employees.
Remi, across the street from The Museum of Modern Art, was fashioned as a Venetian dining destination and catered to corporate clients. Annual revenue, the complaint states, regularly exceeded $6 million.
But in 2019, paychecks were often late by several weeks, according to the complaint, and the landlord sued Delledonne for defaulting on the lease.
The landlord threatened to evict Remi in mid-2019, but reached a settlement that allowed the restaurant to remain until April 2020.
Delledonne “almost immediately” failed to comply with the terms, according to the complaint.
Then Remi closed abruptly on Dec. 12, 2019, “among the busiest and most lucrative” time of the year, according to an affidavit by former head waiter Andres Taveras.
The hourly employees had not been paid for several weeks and the tips had disappeared, he claims.
Tips were pooled, and Taveras, as the elected tips captain, calculated how much everyone was owed in their weekly paychecks.
But Delledonne allegedly used the money “for his own personal benefit or for other illegitimate purposes.”
Delledonne should not be allowed to discharge debts for unpaid wages and tips, the employees argue, because his failure was intentional and the alleged embezzlement of tips was fraudulent.
Delledonne’s bankruptcy attorney, Michael H. Schwartz of White Plains, said in an email that he was unable to speak about the allegations with his client over the Labor Day weekend.
The employees are represented by Manhattan attorney Christopher S. Baluzy.
