Story by Ethan
On October 8th, 2026, the arrest of Patrick Griffin, age 71, was announced by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr.. Patrick Griffin was charged with first-degree Scheme to Defraud as a class E felony, third-degree Grand Larceny by Wage Theft as a class D felony, and Failure to Pay Wages in Accordance with the Labor Law as a class A misdemeanor. The arrest and charges against Patrick Griffin were a result of an investigation handled by the New York State Department of Labor.
According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, from 2019 to 2025, Patrick Griffin was both the owner and operator of the Oklahoma barbecue restaurant chain Au Jus in Manhattan, New York. The chain had three locations: 4232 Broadway, 1569 Lexington Avenue, and 2621 Broadway. Starting in January 2025 Patrick Griffin had allegedly engaged in a pattern of wage theft against several employees. It’s alleged that the defendant had denied workers up to weeks of wages after they had already completed physical labor in his restaurants. Whenever employees would complain to him, he would proceed to make false promises about paying them what they were owed.
While workers waited for the payments Patrick Griffin promised they each fell behind on their own financial responsibilities which led to them seeking new employment. The defendant would then rehire new workers and repeat the cycle over again. Some previous employees continued pursuing attempts to recuperate their owed wages, however Patrick Griffin would ignore all attempts to communicate with him and in one instance outright blocked a worker’s number.
Instead of paying his minimum-wage employees Patrick Griffin would instead impose other conditions while claiming they were to recover missing wages. On one occasion the defendant told a former employee that they would not receive their owed payment until both him and other previous coworkers went back to the restaurant to work again. Instead of being paid as Patrick Griffin promised, wages continued to be withheld until the employee was forced to leave the restaurant again. In another instance Patrick Griffin demanded that an employee sign a document with false claims that the worker didn’t have any forms of government-issued identification. When the employee refused to sign this contract the defendant used it as an excuse to continue holding their wages from them. Patrick Griffin’s behavior was reported to and reviewed by the Worker Protection Unit hotline. After a year of services being provided by five past employees, over $8,000 is still owed in wages.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office stated that the charges against Patrick Griffin are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
