Diego Gonzalez-Rosales, a manager at Zipps Sports Grill responsible for hiring kitchen staff, is expected to plead guilty to charges related to recruiting and hiring illegal aliens at multiple locations, “using fraudulent identification documents to verify their eligibility to work via the E-Verify online employment verification system.”
Gonzalez-Rosales, age 36, a Mexican national illegally residing in the United States, was charged by criminal complaint with Pattern and Practice of Knowingly Employing Unauthorized Aliens, Knowingly Making False Attestations on a Form I-9, Knowingly Transferring Mean of Identification Without Authority, and Aggravated Identity Theft.
Employees Edwin Flores Rosales, 28, Salvador Villenueva-Rosas, 48, and Ludwin Benjamin Perez Velasco, 22, all unlawfully present in the United States, were also charged after a raid of the restaurants in January for lying when filling out the Form I-9, stating they were U.S. citizens and using false identification and social security numbers.
In total, 39 individuals unlawfully present in the United States and working at Zipps were taken into custody during the January operation.
According to the Department of Justice’s complaint and probable cause documents, in March 2025, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) served 14 Zipps locations, plus corporate headquarters, with a notice of inspection requiring the company to produce their Forms I-9, after receiving information alleging that employees may have been using fraudulent identification documents to verify their eligibility to work using the E-Verify system.
HSI later reviewed documents provided by the company that revealed alleged instances in which the name, social security number and date of birth on the forms were being misused to gain employment.
A review of employee wages identified 76 employees who had suspicious patterns of employment, showing between three and 42 active employers other than Zipps Sports Grill during the second quarter of 2025. These individuals certified themselves as U.S. citizens, which meant they were not required to list an Alien Registration Number on their Forms I-9, a form that verifies work eligibility of employees.
The review further showed multiple jobs and extremely high wages earned in the same quarter which is consistent with aggravated identity theft. In line with the patterns identified, Gonzalez-Rosales is alleged to have knowingly employed illegal aliens and assisted individuals in lying on their I-9 forms, claiming the individuals were U.S. citizens and using other individual’s names and identification to complete the forms for employment.
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