Hollywood, kabobs and scams: How a Charlotte father and son stole $1.7M in COVID funds
.png "Pop star Justin Bieber, left, was one of many celebrities featured on the Tarik Freitekh’s Instagram page. The former Hollywood video director and his father, Charlotte restaurateur Izzat Freitekh, were convicted of defrauding the government out of more than $1 million in COVID loan funding.")
Tarik Freitekh had a lot of high-profile connections working as a video director and producer in Hollywood, and his credits include music videos featuring stars like Snoop Dogg, Akon and Shaggy.
His Instagram account has pictures of him with Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces, and celebrities such as Big Sean, Nick Cannon, Chris Brown, Kelly Rowland, Usher and Justin Bieber, whom he referred to as “My bro.” A 2018 X post shows him playing poker with comedian and actor Kevin Hart in the Bahamas.
After working and mingling with the stars, Freitekh would drive back to the $7 million home he owned in Hollywood Hills, the Charlotte Observer previously reported.
Across the country, his dad, Izzat Freitekh, was a successful east Charlotte restaurateur who ran the well-known La Shish Kabob on North Sharon Amity Road.
Izzat shared his fondness for his adopted city of Charlotte with the Southern Foodways Alliance, an oral history project based at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
The Freitekhs were from Jerusalem. In the early 2000s, Tarik was attending UNC Charlotte when tensions continued to rise in Israel. Izzat, his wife and their seven daughters all moved to Charlotte, he told the alliance. He subsequently opened his Mediterranean restaurant around 2010.
Applying for COVID relief
After COVID struck, father and son sought out federal loans designed to help businesses coping with the pandemic.
They ultimately received more than $1.7 million in COVID funding, but did so in 2020 by lying on five loan applications then laundering the money, according to authorities and court records. After getting the money, Izzat doled out $30,000 each to various family members, documents show.
The father-and-son team used companies owned by Izzat to submit the applications, including La Shish Kabob restaurant, La Shish Kabob Catering, Green Apple Catering and Aroma Packaging, court records show. Their applications misrepresented employee totals and payroll expenses, according to those records.
Bank of America began investigating the loan applications after the financial institution discovered that a La Shish Kabob Catering document used an employer identification number of an unrelated company, according to court records.
The bank found other problems in connection with the applications. For instance, the Green Apple Catering application sought $1 million, stating it was in business in February 2020 with 25 workers. But that company did not start until March 2020, court records show.
Convicting the Freitekhs of COVID fraud
After a six-day federal court trial in March 2022, the Freitekhs were convicted of money laundering and related offenses.
Izzat Freitekh was convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering and making false statements. Tarik Freitekh was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, and falsifying and concealing material facts.
After the verdict was read, Tarik passed out, hitting his head on a table, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time. Medics rushed to the courtroom to give him aid.
‘The wicked borrow and do not repay’
Later that day, U.S. Attorney Dena J. King addressed reporters outside the courthouse, saying, “The wicked borrow and do not repay, but in the Freitekhs’ case they also lie to cover up the fraud.
“This father-and-son duo exploited a national emergency for their own benefit, then tried to obstruct justice to avoid punishment,” she said. “A federal jury saw through their criminal shenanigans and now the Freitekhs will be held accountable for their actions.”
Izzat and Tarik Freitekh were sentenced to four years and over seven years in prison, respectively.
In September, a federal appeals court rejected their appeal. Tarik’s lawyers argued that evidence supporting their convictions was insufficient, and that the district court violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel, among other arguments.
The following month, the U.S. District Court of Western North Carolina denied a motion to reduce Tarik’s sentence by a couple years.
Tarik, 37, is in federal prison in Edgefield, South Carolina, while his 59-year-old dad is serving time in a Bennettsville, South Carolina, prison.
Meanwhile, La Shish Kabob restaurant remains open.
Four years ago, when the charges were unsealed in December 2020, Izzat Freitekh told the Observer that he and his son were innocent: “We trust the judges in Charlotte and all over the country. You should wait until the end of the story when the judge will say to me, ‘You were right. You are not guilty.’ ”
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This story was originally published December 18, 2024 at 5:45 AM.
