In response to being exposed in a major media outlet, Royal India’s wage thief bosses have begun claiming the restaurant is “under new ownership”, and are in the process of renaming it to Dastoor. But is there really a new owner, and, if so, who are they?
Some digging by a Reddit user revealed the answer: public records show that “Dastoor” is owned by a shell corporation called SMJM LLC, owned by Royal India’s long time abusive manager Alina Florescu. Alina was running the restaurant when a SeaSol-er casually stopped by to check.
We’ve been hearing horror stories about the Florescu sisters Estera and Alina since the start of this fight. They’re intimately involved in wage theft and they live in a house owned by the Bhattis; we are told they are even included in international Bhatti vacations. Since we began exposing Royal India, the Florescus have been trying to antagonize our picketers and have a nasty habit of nearly hitting us with their cars. In other words, they’re loyal, deeply implicated in crimes, and don’t have very good judgment – perfect to take the fall for the Bhattis as everything starts to unravel.
The bottom line: “Dastoor” is run by the same awful people as Royal India, and it’s no surprise. This is obviously a clumsy and transparent rebranding, but the Bhattis and Florescus never did think much of their customers.