Mehul ‘Mike’ Patel made his workers pay him back.

An Indian American business in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Mehul Chandubhai Patel, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly lying to the government about paying his workers.

Mehul Patel aka Mike Patel’s corporation, RAJ Patel, Inc., owns the Super 8 Motel in Coldwater and the Rodeway Inn on Beckley Road in Battle Creek.

The court information said he falsely advised the U.S. Department of Labor that he paid his employees as required by federal minimum wage rules in the fall of 2015, reported The Daily Reporter.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Patel made the workers give him back the money after they were paid.

“There are good reasons why we have a minimum wage law,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Miles said in a statement. “Workers have the right to a fair wage for a job well done. If an employer tries to cheat his employees out of paying the bare minimum wage permitted in this country, the Department of Labor will come calling to make him follow this law. If that same employer is so brazen that he then lies to the Department of Labor about repaying his employees, federal agents will come calling with an arrest warrant.”

Patel was released from custody, but he was required to give up his passport and wear an electronic tether. If convicted, he could face five years in prison.

Patel came under investigation and was charged with misdemeanors in Calhoun County District Court in November 2015 for accepting earnings from prostitution and keeping a house of prostitution. Those charges are still pending.

In November of 2015, Battle Creek Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Michigan Department of Corrections Probation and Parole officers executed search warrants at the Beckley Road motel and the Super 8 in Coldwater. They also went to two banks to seize records from Patel and RAJ Patel, Inc.

The federal charge may have come from seizure of those records and that investigation. The federal indictment said the false report took place on or about Sept. 23, 2015. Patel’s corporation purchased the Super 8 Motel in September 2011.