Fairfax restaurateur arrested

The owner of three Vietnamese restaurants in the Fairfax County area was arrested Wednesday on charges of knowingly employing and harboring illegal immigrants.

Kiet Quoc Bui, 50, who lives in Centreville, owns the Viet House restaurants on Main Street and Lee Highway in Fairfax City, and a third Viet House on Richmond Highway in the Alexandria area of Fairfax.

Court records show that Arlington police began investigating him last year for money laundering, and later determined that he and his wife, My Tran, were hiring illegal immigrants as employees.

The employees later told police and immigration agents that kitchen workers were paid $100 a day and busboys were paid $75 a day, in cash, every two weeks, a court affidavit states. The employees reported that some of them had worked for Bui for as long as five years, the affidavit by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Scott W. Robinson stated.

Bui reportedly told investigators that he knew he was hiring illegal immigrants, and that it was a common practice in the restaurant business, Robinson wrote.

Bui was arrested Wednesday and released on his own recognizance. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Friday.

-- Tom Jackman