Tanios arrested before, faces civil lawsuit

Mar. 16—His arrest in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, was not the first time George Tanios has faced criminal charges.

There was an uttering charge in 2010, then false pretenses.

He also faces a civil suit brought by a former business partner.

He's the owner of Sandwich University, which is famous for its "over-the-top " sandwiches. The shop used to be on High Street, in a small building above Massullo's that has since been razed. Its current location is 708 Beechurst Ave.

Tanios received $202, 110 in COVID-19 related bailout money through his company Lebanese Connection LLC. One loan, under the Paycheck Protection Program, was for $52, 110. The other $150, 000 came in the form of an Economic Injury Disaster Loan.

Tanios is involved in an on-going civil lawsuit filed in April 2012 by his former business partner, Kenneth Dufalla. The lawsuit alleges Tanios paid himself "significant sums for his personal living and lifestyle expenses well in excess of his agreed upon salary " from the shared business, and did not divide the year-end profits equally for three years.

The case was set to go to trial March 31, 2020, but was rescheduled due to COVID-19 concerns. The most recent entry to the case, on June 23, suggests Tanios was bankrupt. A case was filed in the West Virginia Northern District Bankruptcy Court in May 2020 by Tanios. It is still open.

In October 2020, Tanios told a media outlet he was the victim of a "hate crime " after a rock was thrown through a window of his business, which held a Trump 2020 sign.

He's also disliked by many of his former employees.

Josh Lambert said he was a delivery driver for Tanios for about 2.5 months in 2019. Lambert said the first red flag for him was when Tanios asked Lambert to start work four hours after he interviewed for the job. Another was when he found out Tanios held tips until payday, unlike every other delivery job he's had.

Lambert said because of that, he tracked his delivery numbers and individual tips and on either his first or second paycheck discovered he was short about $80. It worked out to him losing about $12 a shift.

"So (I) immediately knew he was trying to take some off the top from me. I have a feeling I wasn't the first to do this either, because (the manager) quickly found the mistake and paid me out in cash from the register, " which Lambert said he also didn't think was appropriate.

On his first day, Lambert saw another driver get fired on the spot for talking about interviewing with another restaurant and heard Tanios said something to the effect of "good luck to him getting his last check."

Kayla Scott said she worked for Tanios as a sandwich maker and driver from April-September 2017. She said during her time she was called derogatory names, not paid on time, and saw racist and threatening behavior towards staff and customers.

Scott quit because Tanios tried to make her work on her scheduled day off when she had plans to babysit a sibling. When she told him she had prior obligations, Tanios and another man called her several derogatory names, she said.