A garment factory general manager lands himself in trouble for offering bribe to a US Department of Labor recently for closing an investigation into wage violations.
The person in question, 42-year-old Howard Quoc Trinh, who is the general manager of Seven-Bros Enterprises in La Puente city of Los Angeles county (California, US), was brought to a federal court last week, where he was convicted on two counts of bribery by the jury, following deliberations of less than an hour. He faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison. US District Judge Christina A Snyder presided over the trial.
According to a US Department of Justice statement, the evidence presented in court found him guilty of offering $10,000 to a labour official, investigating a case of violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets standards for minimum wage and overtime pay, at the factory last year. Prosecutors also showed proof of how Trinh paid $3,000 to the investigator after his initial bribe offer. Apparently, Trinh was to pay the remaininig amount after the investigation was closed, department officials said. According to the labour department investigation, Seven-Bros owed about $100,000 towards compensation to employees for FLSA violations. Trinh, however, maintained that he did not owe any back wages to his employees and offered to “take care” of the investigator.
He was caught when he actually gave the advance money to the investigator, who was ready with a recording device fitted to his body that the Labor Department’s Office of Investigator General had equipped him with to run a bribery investigation against the manager.
“Companies and their managers victimizing their own employees through wage violations cannot perpetuate their conduct through bribes,” United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker said in a statement. “This jury verdict strikes a blow against both corruption and the exploitation of workers.”
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
