PHOENIX - Federal authorities say they have charged a Zipps Sports Grill hiring manager with aggravated identity theft and the unlawful employment of illegal immigrants following a yearlong investigation into the restaurant chain.
The charges come after Monday, Jan. 26's coordinated raids across the Phoenix area, which resulted in the detention of 39 employees and revealed an alleged widespread scheme to bypass the federal E-Verify system.
In Summary:
In the Jan. 29 statement, the agency says Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the IRS worked in coordination to serve the 15 federal search warrants at the restaurants in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale and Gilbert.
The statement went on to name several people who were arrested and are accused of immigration-related violations. Thirty-nine employees were arrested in the raids for being "unlawfully present in the United States." Other charges include identity theft and document fraud.
The agency accuses Diego Gonzalez-Rosales, 36, as being in charge of hiring kitchen staff for all Zipps locations, saying he recruited and hired "illegal aliens" and used "fraudulent identification documents to verify their eligibility to work via the E-Verify online employment verification system."
Gonzalez-Rosales, authorities say, is in the United States illegally.
There's still no word if the owner of Zipps, Todd Goldman, is accused of any wrongdoing. Several restaurant locations have reopened since the raids.
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Full statement from the United States Attorney's Office District of Arizona:
Special Agents with Homeland Security Investigations and IRS-Criminal Investigation executed federal search warrants at 14 Zipps restaurants in the Phoenix area, Monday, Jan. 26, after a year-long investigation into unlawful employment of aliens, identity theft and document fraud.
As a result of the investigation, Diego Gonzalez-Rosales, 36, a Mexican national illegally residing in the United States, was charged by criminal complaint with Pattern and Practice of Knowingly Employing Unauthorized Aliens, Knowingly Making False Attestations on a Form I-9, Knowingly Transferring Means of Identification Without Authority, and Aggravated Identity Theft.
As the individual responsible for hiring kitchen staff for all Zipps locations in Arizona, Gonzalez-Rosales is alleged to have recruited and hired illegal aliens at multiple locations, using fraudulent identification documents to verify their eligibility to work via the E-Verify online employment verification system.
Employees Edwin Flores Rosales, 28, Salvador Villenueva-Rosas, 48, and Ludwin Benjamin Perez Velasco, 22, all unlawfully present in the United States, have also been charged in criminal complaints for lying when filling out the Form I-9, stating they were U.S. citizens and using false identification and social security numbers.
In total, 39 individuals unlawfully present in the United States and working at Zipps were taken into custody during the operation.
According to the complaint and probable cause documents, in March 2025, Homeland Security Investigations served 14 Zipps locations, plus corporate headquarters, with a notice of inspection requiring the company to produce their Forms I-9, after receiving information alleging that employees may have been using fraudulent identification documents to verify their eligibility to work using the E-Verify system.
HSI later reviewed documents provided by the company that revealed alleged instances in which the name, social security number and date of birth on the forms were being misused to gain employment.
A review of employee wages identified 76 employees who had suspicious patterns of employment, showing between three and 42 active employers other than Zipps Sports Grill during the second quarter of 2025. These individuals certified themselves as U.S. citizens, which meant they were not required to list an Alien Registration Number on their Forms I-9, a form that verifies work eligibility of employees.
The review further showed multiple jobs and extremely high wages earned in the same quarter which is consistent with aggravated identity theft. In line with the patterns identified, Gonzalez-Rosales is alleged to have knowingly employed illegal aliens and assisted individuals in lying on their I-9 forms, claiming the individuals were U.S. citizens and using other individual’s names and identification to complete the forms for employment.
A criminal complaint is simply a method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
HSI Arizona is continuing the investigation based on information seized during the execution of the search warrant with support from IRS-Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, Phoenix, is prosecuting the case.