SF restaurant owners charged with offering bribes for leases

The owners of Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant Nick’s Lighthouse are facing federal charges over allegations that they paid bribes in exchange for restaurant leases, as first reported by the Mercury News. 

According to court records, Min “James” Paik and his wife Hye Paik each face one charge of conspiracy to commit bribery and one charge of bribery of an agent of an organization receiving federal funds. In May of this year, James Paik allegedly approached an unnamed Port of San Francisco employee offering cash in exchange for help with obtaining leases at several properties owned by the port.

According to the complaint filed Nov. 14, the employee’s superiors contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which began investigating the couple. The FBI instructed the port employee to secretly record the Paiks and also sent an FBI agent to pose as a port employee. During the investigation, the couple allegedly gave the port employee and the undercover agent a total of $19,000 in cash bribes in exchange for help securing or expediting leases formerly occupied by the restaurants Lou’s Fish Shack, Pompei’s Grotto and Butterfly.

Paik also allegedly promised the unnamed Port employee and the undercover FBI agent additional thousands of dollars in bribes to come in the future.

The Paiks have been permitted to remain out of custody on $50,000 bonds. The couple made their first appearance in federal court Tuesday, and are scheduled to return to court on Jan. 3, according to court records. SFGATE did not hear back from the Paiks’ attorneys in time for publication. The Port of San Francisco does not comment on pending criminal matters, per a statement from its spokesperson.