(WXYZ) — A 52-year-old Metro Detroit restaurant owner has been indicted by a grand jury on federal charges, accused of harboring undocumented workers in substandard living conditions.
Watch Brett Kast's video report:
Federal law enforcement arrested Yong Ni, owner of Kyoto Japanese Steakhouse, in Troy on Thursday. Ni, whose restaurant has locations in Royal Oak and Shelby Township, is accused of conspiracy, harboring undocumented workers for commercial advantage, and fraud. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Ni is also charged with visa fraud. Prosecutors say he obtained his permanent residency by failing to disclose a 1995 exclusion order, where he attempted to enter the United States with a fraudulent passport.
"We will investigate and prosecute employers who harbor illegal aliens," United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said in a press release. "These criminal employers profit from lawbreaking. And they do it at the expense of the American worker."
According to federal forfeiture filings, Ni allowed employees to live rent-free in homes he owned, which they referred to as "dorms," as long as they worked at his restaurants. Employees told investigators they never filled out applications or employment forms prior to working.
Authorities said Ni directed undocumented workers to other employees to obtain fraudulent permanent resident and Social Security cards.
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The investigation stems from a May 2024 human trafficking and prostitution bust at local massage parlors. During five raids, federal authorities first encountered Ni after discovering his restaurant owned a home on Gulliver Street where massage parlor workers were allegedly being housed. Court documents show law enforcement warned Ni at that time that his employees did not have lawful immigration status or work authorization.
"These individuals did not have any transportation; they were being driven back and forth by the individuals we had arrested," Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said in 2024 shortly after the search.
I first questioned the restaurant owners about the home nearly two years ago, but no charges were filed at the time, and they were not accused of illegal activity, so we did not name them.
In February 2025, federal officials reopened their investigation into Ni and began staking out his Shelby Township restaurant. Authorities allege they observed workers being transported to and from a home on Cellestial Court.
"It was kinda weird, we thought, because why would a steakhouse buy a house and why are people living there?" neighbor Michael Arcangeli said.
Arcangeli says he saw a large white van pick up people in the morning, then drop them off late at night.
"They would come, and they would park in the driveway or park in the grass there, and like 8-10 people would get out, and they would go in the house. They would never talk to anybody, they would never say anything," Arcangeli said.
Officers from the Macomb County FBI Gang and Violent Crime Task Force and the U.S. Border Patrol Detroit Sector observed similar activity between the Royal Oak restaurant and a nearby home on Ardmore Avenue. Authorities searched both homes in May of last year and found 28 people living between both homes, including 17 people living illegally in the United States.
"The house is rather large, but I think there's only 4 bedrooms, and you had 10-12 people getting out of the van every day," Arcangeli said.
According to court documents, law enforcement observed numerous living areas built into smaller spaces with limited furniture to accommodate more people. Authorities called the conditions substandard, similar to what sheriff's deputies found in the Shelby Township home in 2024.
"I wasn’t inside there, but my detectives did indicate there was about 11 different makeshift rooms in the basement, deplorable living conditions," Wickersham said in 2024.
During the searches, the FBI seized a 2019 Toyota RAV4, a 2020 Chevrolet Express van, and a 2021 Honda Odyssey used to transport workers, along with $2,811 from the Shelby Township home and $11,604 from the Royal Oak home.
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