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How do I report an illegal business in my neighborhood?

I live in western new york, and in my neighborhood there is a man who operates two businesses, both totally illegal. One is a convenient store. He charges no sales tax, and pays his employees off the books. I'm also pretty sure he is violating some kind of health, safety and fire codes. He actually cooks food in there with no restaurant license. The place is dirty and looks like a fire hazard. Its gross. Also runs a construction company. Again, no permit or license. Again, all employees paid off the books. Not safe. These businesses are not even listed in the phone book. He thinks he is above the law. He often does not pay people who work for him. He fires people if they get injured while working for him. He should be in jail. What can I do? I've contacted the labor board and the IRS. So far no action, but it's not been very long. What else can I do? This man needs to be taken down, he hurts people in my neighborhood with his shady practices. I'm sick of it!

Public Comments

  1. duh- tell the police.
  2. County prosecuters office.
  3. Call or send information to your local newspaper.
  4. The Health Dept. may be able to shut him down immediately.
  5. You can contact your local Health Inspector and report him.
  6. You have no life. This man is just trying to make money. Stop being the nosey neighbor and worry about your own business.
  7. better business bureau
  8. call you local board of health you can give them some anotomous tips and they will have to go out there and investigate and the store owner will also have to show proof of employee records and zoning codes and his licens to own a store and all that good stuff.
  9. call the police
  10. Tell the police exactly what you wrote here. They will investigate him.
  11. since he sells FOOD, contact the HEALTH INSPECTOR. They can shut him down.
  12. Call your city or town hall. They take an interest in zoning, permits, code enforcement, and neighborhood issues. They will find the appropriate responses.
  13. call the friken cops de da de
  14. Call the Department of Health.Or if you know for a fact that he is committing some sort of crime call the police.
  15. get the cops and if that dosent work see if your friends want to press charges and take him to court
  16. Contact your local Code Enforcement Agency and the Health Dept. for the restaurant. They will be able to help you.
  17. You can call the Fire Marshall anytime, they are usually very eager to inspect. health code violations usually get put at the bottom of a long list unless someone is hospitalized. The New York dept. of revenue should be interested in tax practices as well as the IRS (payroll taxes) but a lot of small businesses are paying under the counter because their employees aren't legally authorized to work in the US so a call to the INS could be fun too.
  18. CALL THE FUZZ [anonomously]
  19. Contact your local T.V. station
  20. You might consider contacting your local prosecutors offices. The District Attorney/County Attorney or the Attorney General. many have walk-in appointments so you can talk to someone and find out what they need to know - or where you actually should be making the report. There is the Dept of Health (food) and the Fire Department you can also go to. Sounds like you know a lot about the details there. So I think you may have worked there and be pissed off at him. That doesn't mean you are lying. It just means you need to come across as being objective, not vindictive, if people are going to listen to you. And have your details straight. BTW - the police couldn't care less. Don't waste your time or theirs.
  21. Contact the health department. They are usually in charge of licensing restaurants and they probably can get the ball rolling with the other agencies. Also contact your state and local taxing authorities. He is not only not paying federal taxes, he is probably evading state and local taxes as well. Call the federal government bureau of wages and labor standards. A place I used to work at didn't pay overtime and the BWLS guy came in and fixed things. They were forced to attempt to contact prior employees to pay them past due overtime as well as pay the current employees all back pay due. Then their books were audited for 5 years to be sure they were compliant on an ongoing basis. Also call the "metro" or "city" section of your local newspaper. Newspapers love stuff like this. If you have any proof at all or can get several of your friends and neighbors to call the newspaper too, they may come out and do a story about it. If that fails, write a letter for the "Editorial" page.
  22. Tell the police he offered you drugs. Even if he didn't they'll look at him closer, and see he is under IRS investigation and such (assuming the complaint u filed was official). Then once a rumour of drugs is in the mix, they'll be on him faster. like a joke i heard once "a man wakes up one night to hearing someone in his tool shed outside. He calls the police and says, there's someone stealing my tools from my shed, send someone over quick. The dispatcher says sorry sir all our units are busy right now, we can't send someone over jsut yet. So he hangs up the phone and listens to the guys making off with his stuff. Then he gets an idea. He calls the police back and says, "ok don't worry about it anymore, i shot and killed the guys who were robbing me," then hangs up. Within a minute his house is swarming with police. They find the men still emptying his shed and they say, "hey I thought you said you shot them", to which he replies "I thought you said no one was available". If you use the drugs as your shot and killed story ( or even that someone was shot and killed, gotta love anonymous tips, go crimestoppers), then you can get the swarm of cops instead of the "no one is available bs right now.
  23. Fire Marshall Department of Public Health Bureau of Business Licenses Department of Labor State Tax Office Turn them all loose on him at once. You may have to spend a good part of a day at City Hall but it will be worth it.
  24. First of all start locally. See if you have a local code enforcement and call them. If he's running a business without the proper license they will get him. Also you could call the fire department because he may be running afoul of fire codes. I don't want to sound too cynical but these two organizations may have enough time on their hands to get him to straighten up or shut down. Contacting the labor board is probably a waste of time because you didn't work for him and have no real grievance. Contacting the IRS is probably a waste of time because they generally want detailed information of a persons wrongdoing which generally would require being inside his organization. They probably won't investigate otherwise. They're also stretched pretty thin. A state organization that deals with sales tax might investigate but they probably also want some proof to show that you're not just another whack job with a grudge. If there are a bunch of former wronged employees have them complain to the proper authorities. If they were paid off the books they might be unlikely to come forward. If he's doing illegal contracting, find out where and report the type of work and location to the local bulding authorities. Last of all, reserve making statements to authorities like "he should be in jail". Just report the facts to the proper authorities and let them act. There's plenty of options to explore. If they don't pan out, let it be. If he's really a bad person, karma will take care of him.
  25. I'm with C murphy
  26. Just leave it, don't be a snitch, he may know some dodgy people watch out..
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