A popular Mexican restaurant in Bell is facing financial hardship after a longtime manager embezzled more than $300,000, according to a report.
Jorge A. Bejarano stole from La Casita Mexicana over the course of 12 years, nearly half of the restaurant’s existence, reports L.A. Taco. La Casita Mexicana has been featured on KTLA, including in 2022.
“It was a lesson learned the hard way on how just one employee can almost break an entire business,” Martin del Campo told the outlet.
Bejarano, who was “like family to us,” Del Campo said, was found out when La Casita’s owners congratulated an employee on opening a bank account and starting direct deposit.
That employee, however, had no bank account, according to Del Campo.
That discovery set off a chain of findings that led to Bejarano, who had left the restaurant by 2021 to open his own business, Xochipilli Taco Bar in Van Nuys.
“However, Del Campo strongly believes he kept embezzling money until the following year, even after he was no longer employed at La Casita Mexicana,” L.A. Taco reports.
Bejarano was arrested on March 12, according to a press release from the Bell Police Department.
Booking records indicate he is free on bond, and no court date information is available.
While Del Campo’s pursuit of justice is ongoing, he has a warning for other restauranteurs.
“When you own a restaurant, it’s easy to lose yourself in perfecting a new dish or making sure a recipe is done correctly every single day, but this taught us that you have to be just as meticulous, if not more, about the administrative side as well,” Del Campo told L.A. Taco.