SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A chain of grocery stores owned by a Sacramento city councilman were raided Thursday by the feds.
Sean Loloee owns several Viva supermarkets across the area and ABC10 learned the IRS and Homeland Security visited the businesses to investigate.
The investigation follows an April 2022 lawsuit filed by the Labor Department against Loloee alleging the councilman underpaid employees, interfered with federal investigations and violated child labor laws.
Now Fabrizio Sasso, the executive director of the Sacramento Central Labor Council — which represents 170,000 union members — is calling for him to resign.
Sasso says he isn’t surprised by the news.
“[Loloee] continues to be embroiled not just with allegations around labor violations, but with other things as well,” said Sasso. “That's why we think he cannot serve effectively.”
He sent a letter to the Sacramento City Council and is calling for Loloee to resign from his seat because he says the raid is causing an unwanted distraction.
“I think people need to ask whether or not someone who's elected to office can effectively do their job and serve their constituents while they're being under investigation by four different government agencies simultaneously,” he said. “Whether or not someone who has the power to make decisions on where federal money goes, should be allowed to do that while being under federal investigation.”
The IRS, Homeland Security and Department of Treasury raided four Viva supermarkets across Sacramento County. The raids started at 7 a.m. and lasted several hours into the afternoon.
The IRS told ABC10 it was part of an “authorized criminal enforcement” investigation and couldn’t say if any arrests were made.
“I don’t have insight on what’s typical or atypical, what I can say is in the event there is a financial crimes suspected across the United States at any location, the IRS Investigation Unit will pursue those,” said John Pearl with the IRS.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Public Affairs Office also sent the following statement:
“Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigations, and the State of California, Department of Justice are conducting a court authorized criminal law enforcement activity at several locations in the Sacramento area. To protect all parties involved in this activity, that’s all we can share at this moment.
ABC10 reached out to Councilman Loloee’s office for comment. They sent the following statement:
“The issue you're emailing about is a personal matter related to the Councilmember's businesses and is not connected to his work at City Hall. We would encourage you to reach out to Viva Supermarkets for questions or comments regarding the matter.”
We reached out to Viva Supermarkets but have not heard back yet. The owner at a North Sacramento location declined to comment.
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