Omega Burger and El Fuego owners charged with bank fraud and tax evasion

The owners of the Omega Burger, El Fuego and El Beso restaurants in Franklin have been charged by a Federal grand jury with a 33-count indictment of paying employees with cash and not paying taxes.

Paul Bouraxis, Freida Bouraxis, Andreas Bouraxis and Ray Awadallah are named in the indictment.

The indictment alleges the defendants paid restaurant employees in cash and failed to pay taxes on such wages. The defendants concealed their actions by not depositing cash skimmed from the restaurants to bank accounts, instead maintained a cash hoar of more than $1.7 million. Some of the skimmed cash was used to purchase jewelry and precious metals, including 33, 100-ounce bars of silver.

Paul Bouraxis, also, charged with 10 counts of tax evasion based on the tax return he filed for himself or 2010 and payroll tax returns for Omega Burger.

The indictment said he concealed his true financial condition from the bank, including that he and his family had a cash hoard of more than $1.7 million and bank accounts in Greece with balances of more than $2 million.