COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The owner of the Super 8 Motel on Orleans Boulevard, in Coldwater, who has been under federal investigation for years, has now been slapped with a big bill for restitution.
31-year-old Mehul Patel, who is also known as Mike Patel, was charged with paying his workers less than the minimum wage. Patel was ordered by a U.S. Federal Court judge to make restitution, paid the workers, and then made those give the money back to him.
Patel was sentenced to jail time for submitting the cancelled checks as proof he had paid. He was also ordered in May to spend two months in prison for lying to a federal agency.
He has now agreed to pay over $150,000 to the workers he underpaid, but this time he will give the money to the Department of Labor to distribute.
Patel also owns the Roadway Inn on Beckley Road. Battle Creek Police and federal agents raided the office of the Battle Creek motel in November 2015.
