Chipotle under criminal scrutiny for hiring practices

Denver Business Journal

Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 5:01pm MDT

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.    Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. Latest from The Business Journals Chipotle under investigation for hiring practicesBenchmark buys in Maryland, wraps Tonawanda workChipotle's immigration probe isn't over yet Follow this company disclosed Tuesday that it is being investigated by federal prosecutors looking into possible criminal violations of securities laws in its process of verifying the legal status of workers.

The Denver-based burrito chain (NYSE: CMG), in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, said that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., notified it Monday that it is “conducting an investigation into possible criminal securities law violations relating to our employee work authorization verification compliance and related disclosures and statements.”

In recent years, federal authorities have been looking into whether Chipotle hired illegal immigrants to work in its restaurants and how it checks workers’ legal status.
In January 2011, following an audit by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Chipotle dismissed some 450 of its Minnesota employees who lacked valid employment eligibility documents. That ICE probe later expanded to 60 of the company’s restaurants in Virginia and Washington, where additional Chipotle workers were dismissed.

Last May, ICE agents checked more than 20 Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants in several markets, including Los Angeles, Washington and Atlanta.

The company has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in its hiring practices and said it has upgraded its procedures for verifying employees’ legal status.

“We intend to continue to fully cooperate in the government’s investigations,” Chipotle said in Tuesday’s securities filing.

Compiled by the DBJ's Mark Harden