A former restaurateur in San Luis Obispo county, Robert Clouston, was arrested on July 15th following a three-year labor exploitation investigation.
Clouston is the former owner of Estrella and Robert’s restaurant in Paso Robles, and Robert’s Restaurant & Bar in Arroyo Grande. In 2014, he was sentenced to one year in jail for elder abuse, found guilty of taking property from a 99-year-old Templeton woman’s trust without her knowledge, and taking out $500,00 in loans on the property.
Now in Arizona, Robert is charged with conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens, conspiracy to encourage and induce aliens to unlawfully enter the United States, and knowingly employing unauthorized aliens. The indictment says Robert and his wife, as well as Rogel-Jaimes and Romero Molina devised a scheme to create a cleaning company that would operate as a staffing company for the Colt Grill Restaurants.
The indictment says they paid workers below minimum wage and didn’t compensate them for overtime, or pay proper employment taxes for the workers.
