Ex-Embeya Co-Owner Wanted On Wire Fraud Charge

CHICAGO, IL — One of the former owners of Embeya, a pan-Asian restaurant in the West Loop that closed in 2016, is accused of misusing at least $300,000 of the eatery's money, according to federal prosecutors. Attila Gyulai, 45, was charged with wire fraud Monday, and a warrant is out for his arrest.

Prosecutors accuse Gyulai of engaging in schemes to missappropriate the company's money between 2011 to 2016. According to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, the restaurateur allegedly paid personal expenses with money from Embeya, as well as allegedly funneling cash from investors and other owners to himself.

Gyulai and a relative were majority owners of Embeya, which means "little one" in Vietnamese. Located in the 500 block of West Randolph Street, the restaurant opened in 2012, and Esquire magazine named it one of the country's best new eateries in 2013.

The federal complaint claims Gyulai told shareholders that he and his relative invested $140,000 of their own money in order to secure a bank loan to open Embeya. But Gyulai actually had borrowed that money from family and friends, and he paid them back in 2013, using the restaurant's funds from the restaurant and hiding those payments from shareholders, prosecutors allege.

In 2014, Gyulai allegedly paid himself and his relative about $140,000 that was said to be the return on their initial investment, the complaint states. But because Gyulai and the relative hadn't invested their own money, prosecutors claim they used Embeya's money to pay themselves double the amount of the reported investment.

Gyulai also is accused of using the restaurant's funds for personal stock trading while he was a co-owner, the complaint alleges.

If convicted, Gyulai could face up to 20 years in prison.

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