The owner of Berlin restaurant where Oscar-nominated movie was filmed has been charged with COVID-19 stimulus fraud
Photo: Google Maps
Berlin restaurant On the Trax was previously the site of a different restaurant named The Flat Penny Bar and Grill.
The owner of the Berlin restaurant where the movie "Knives Out" was filmed is among the first two people in the country to face charges for filing fraudulent coronavirus relief loan applications through the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Department of Justice announced in a press release on Tuesday.
David Staveley, also known as Kurt Sanborn, 52, of Andover, as well as David Butziger, 51, of Warwick R.I., were charged with conspiracy to make false statements to influence the SBA and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to the DOJ. Separately, Staveley is charged with aggravated identity theft, and Butziger is charged with bank fraud. The pair were charged in the U.S. District Court in Providence.
Staveley is accused of requesting over $438,500 to cover payroll for dozens of employees across three restaurants, including one in Berlin and two in Warwick, the DOJ said. However, two of the restaurants, the former Remington House in Warwick, and On the Trax in Berlin, were reportedly closed before the start of the coronavirus pandemic and had no employees.
On the Trax is the new name of the Berlin restaurant Flat Penny Bar & Grill, where "Knives Out" was filmed. The website for On the Trax still touts it as the movie's location, showing a picture of actor Chris Evans in a restaurant booth. "Knives Out" stars Evans, Daniel Craig and Jamie Lee Curtis, and the film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 2020 Academy Awards.
The Berlin restaurant was reportedly shut down on March 10, when town officials revoked the establishment’s liquor license, according to the DOJ. Staveley was also accused of misrepresenting his brother as the restaurant’s owner, and of using his brother’s identity in real estate transactions.
The DOJ further reported that Staveley had no connection to the third Warwick restaurant named in the investigation.
Staveley and Butziger reportedly exchanged emails about plans to defraud the loan program, the DOJ said.
Beyond allegedly conspiring with Staveley, Butziger is accused of applying for $105,381 in SBA Paycheck Protection Program loans to cover employees working for an unincorporated entity named Dock Wireless.
Butziger reportedly told an FBI undercover agent posing as a bank compliance officer that he had seven full-time employees working for Dock Wireless, including himself. The DOJ accused Butziger of falsely claiming that he brought his employees on full-time on Jan. 1, 2020, before laying them off at the end of March.
He claimed the employees worked for him without pay through April 2020, and that he would use the PPP loan to pay them, the DOJ said.
“Thankfully we were able to stop them before taxpayers were defrauded, but today’s arrests should serve as a warning to others that the FBI and our law enforcement partners will aggressively go after bad actors like them who are utilizing the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to commit fraud,” said special agent in charge Joseph Bonavolonta, of the FBI’s Boston Field Office.
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Lived in Harvard. Went by that restaurant many times.
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