Hotel Found Guilty in Fraud Case, Illegally Kept $9 Million in Workers Tips

Here’s a tip. Don’t mess with people’s tips.

A federal court judge in San Francisco made a ruling against the Marriott Hotel there.

The San Francisco Marriott was accused of taking almost $9 billion from workers in tips. The judge found the hotel guilty, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The alleged incident happened over almost a five-year between 2012 and 2017. Apparently, the hotel would host a banquet, such as a wedding, and a large tip would be collected by a hotel employee to be distributed to the workers.

Except the tips never got there.

“Customers pay service charges — on top of hefty food and beverage bills — because they think they are tips for the waitstaff,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, attorney for the workers, told the Chronicle.