News

Chipotle hiring investigation grows in scope

May 3, 2011

The investigation into Chipotle Mexican Grill's hiring practices has been extended to include Atlanta and Los Angeles. Federal immigration agents spent Tuesday interviewing employees at 20 to 25 restaurants in several locations as part of their criminal investigation into the company.

According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, the agents interviewed managers and supervisors, and will seek to interview employees as well.

From the story:

"If agents are interviewing workers at stores, clearly they are looking for information that goes beyond the I-9 audits," said Victor Cerba, a former general counsel at ICE who is now a partner at Jackson Lewis LLP. "An audit can be a purely paper process when there is nothing unusual with the company."

In March, Chipotle fired at least 40 workers in Washington, D.C., after ICE collected documents for an audit in Virginia and Washington, according to an immigrant advocacy group and dismissed workers. A Chipotle spokesman said they had presented new documents to verify their status 'that proved to be fraudulent.'"

While Chipotle's stock is still in good standing, the investigation has some analysts downgrading its share value.

Members of the Chipotle executive team will present at the Baird Growth Stock Conference on May 11 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago. The presentation will begin at 12:45 p.m. Eastern time.

The presentation will be webcast live from the Company's website, chipotle.com, under the investors section. An archived webcast will be available after the conclusion of the presentation.