The wife and business manager of Worcester restaurateur Kevin A. Perry Jr. have been indicted for money laundering after allegedly retrieving over $200,000 of Perry's drug money from a storage locker and using it to open a new restaurant.

The federal charges come four months after Perry pleaded guilty for using drug proceeds to finance "The Usual," his and his wife Stacey Gala's former Shrewsbury Street eatery.

Gala and The Usual's manager Joseph Herman were indicted Thursday for money laundering, after they allegedly used Perry's hidden drug proceeds to launch a new restaurant on the site of The Usual after Perry was charged by federal authorities.

Herman is also facing charges of making false statements to federal investigators and attempting to tamper with a witness, for allegedly trying to cover up the crime as investigators closed in.

When The Usual opened in the fall of 2016, it was heralded as another contributor to Worcester's dining renaissance. But in March of last year, Perry was arrested -- and the allegations made by federal authorities gave a darker tinge to his and Gala's recent successes.

Perry, who had served time for conspiring to manufacture ecstasy in 2005, had emerged from prison and used funds from those drug deals to purchase and maintain The Usual and another restaurant, the Blackstone Tap, authorities said. He also allegedly sold fentanyl pills in 2016 and 2017.

Gala and Herman were not initially charged, but Perry's prosecution threw the future of the business into doubt.

They responded, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, by trying to open a new restaurant on the site of The Usual -- using drug money Perry had kept hidden from authorities.

"In or about May 2017, Perry told Gala that he had hidden approximately $260,000 in a self-storage locker in Northborough, Massachusetts. The money consisted of Perry's drug proceeds," the indictment said. "Gala told Herman about the money and, eventually, Herman and another individual, C.S., removed over $200,000 from the self-storage locker in which Perry had concealed the drug proceeds prior to his arrest."

By the end of May, Gala -- who was registered as the restaurant's owner -- shuttered The Usual. She and Herman then allegedly used the drug money to renovate the site and reopen it as a new restaurant called "The Chameleon."

But to do so, they first had to get approval to amend their alcoholic beverage license for the new name. In a hearing before Worcester's license commission, Herman allegedly lied about the source of funding for the renovations.

"How much money did you put into this business?" Worcester Police Lt. James Johnson, the department's liaison to the commission, asked Herman at the hearing.

"40," Herman replied.

"40,000 that you got from relatives and yourself?" Johnson said.

"Yeah," Herman said.

The Chameleon's existence was shortlived, opening in July of last year and being shuttered by early November. But in that time Gala and Herman allegedly used the drug money to fund its operations, according to the indictment.

Herman's legal problems deepend after he allegedly lied to Drug Enforcement Administration investigators in an August 3 interview. Herman allegedly said Gala had given him $100,000 to renovate the restaurant and had only spent $16,000, but federal authorities alleged he had worked with Gala to retrieve $200,000 in drug proceeds and spend more than $16,000 on the business.

Herman also allegedly worked with Perry to conceal at least $330,000 in drug proceeds despite telling investigators he had no role in doing so.

After a grand jury was convened, Herman also attempted to convince a witness, identified in the indictment as C.S., to give false testimony.

"Herman requested that C.S. refrain from testifying about their joint retrieval of the drug proceeds from the self-storage locker," the indictment said. "Further, Herman instructed C.S. that if C.S. was asked about the self-storage locker specifically, C.S. should testify that C.S. was alone when he traveled to the self-storage facility and retrieved the drug proceeds from the locker.

The government was given authority to seize and sell the properties that housed The Usual and the Blackstone Tap in December.

Perry, who had a string of criminal convictions in Massachusetts dating back to 1991, told authorities he was "virtually destitute" when he emerged from prison in 2008. But between 2012 and 2016, he spent $2.2 million on Central Mass. real estate -- transactions he now admits were funded by drug proceeds.