2012-13 Business Directory
August 6, 2012
Thai Ginger owner sentenced for immigration scheme
February 23, 2010
A judge sentenced the owner of the Thai Ginger restaurant chain, Issaquah resident Varee Bradford, to six months in prison last week for her role in what authorities described as a long-running immigration scam. Read more
Thai Ginger owner sentenced for immigration scheme
February 19, 2010
NEW — 6:30 p.m. Feb. 19, 2010
A judge sentenced the owner of the Thai Ginger restaurant chain, Issaquah resident Varee Bradford, to six months in prison Friday for her role in what authorities described as a long-running immigration scam.
Bradford, 44, recruited U.S. citizens to enter sham marriages with Thai citizens in order for the immigrants to obtain legal status to stay in the United States. She pleaded guilty last October to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and three counts of fraud relating to immigration documents. Agents arrested Bradford for the immigration scheme last June at her Issaquah home.
“You used your money and position to circumvent the law,” U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez told Bradford during the sentencing hearing. “This mocks the efforts of immigrants who work hard and wait years to obtain citizenship.”
Thai Ginger operates restaurants in Klahanie, Bellevue, Redmond and Seattle.
Thai Ginger does justice to top-billed ingredient
January 12, 2010
When a restaurant includes a signature ingredient in the name above the door, the act amounts to a challenge to diners, almost as if the owners laid down a gauntlet. Try the namesake dish, the menu demands. We dare you.
Thai Ginger, where the potent root receives top billing, deploys the main ingredient in the Thai Ginger House Special — assorted vegetables and protein studded with matchsticks of the spicy-sweet tuber. Consider the dish a litmus test. Include too much ginger, and the flavor bludgeons other players into submission. Skimp on ginger, and fail to do justice to the title dish.
Thai Ginger owner faces jail time in immigration case
October 27, 2009
Issaquah restaurateur Varee Bradford has pleaded guilty to federal immigration charges. Read more
Issaquah restaurateur faces federal charges
June 30, 2009
Immigration agents arrested Issaquah restaurateur Varee Bradford last week on federal charges of paying her employees to enter “sham marriages” with Thai citizens to help them to stay in the United States. Read more
Issaquah resident accused of arranging ‘sham marriages’ for Thai Ginger employees
June 23, 2009
NEW — 3:36 p.m. June 23, 2009
Immigration agents arrested Issaquah restaurateur Varee Bradford today on federal charges of paying her employees to enter “sham marriages” with Thai citizens to help them to stay in the United States. Bradford, 43, operates the chain of Thai Ginger restaurants.
Authorities unsealed a federal grand-jury indictment in U.S. District Court in Seattle today against Bradford and former Thai Ginger employee Porramin Tangchaiwanna, 32, known by the nickname Golf.
The indictment accuses Bradford of offering her employees up to $25,000 to enter sham marriages with her Thai relatives for immigration purposes.
