Ramzi Naber — Direct/Cross/Redirect
349 linesJUDGE WHEELER: State may call its next witness.
MS. DUGAN: State calls Ramzi Naber.
JUDGE WHEELER: Ramzi Naber, please.
JUDGE WHEELER: Before you have a seat, we're gonna swear you in. Please raise your right hand, respond to the clerk.
COURT CLERK: Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
RAMZI NABER: I do.
JUDGE WHEELER: Please have a seat. Good.
MS. DUGAN: Good afternoon. Will you, uh, tell us your name and spell it for our court reporter, please?
RAMZI NABER: Ramzi Naber. R-A-M-Z-I, N-A-B-E-R.
MS. DUGAN: And do you live in the Miami area, Mr. Naber?
RAMZI NABER: I live in Hallandale Beach, Florida.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. What do you do for a living?
RAMZI NABER: I am a restaurateur.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Now, did you used to own a club called Club Fate?
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
RAMZI NABER: Oh, you're testing my memory here. I think, uh, it's been a good seven, eight years since I had it. So 2012, 2014.
MS. DUGAN: What was your role as the owner?
RAMZI NABER: Managing the facility, scheduling, staffing, purchasing, marketing, promotion, all of it.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. When you when you owned it, would you also hire and fire employees?
RAMZI NABER: Correct. Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And what about financials — paying bills, doing the cash outs, who would do that?
RAMZI NABER: Either myself or one of the managers.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, just a moment.
MS. DUGAN: What city is Club Fate in?
RAMZI NABER: Hallandale Beach, inside Gulfstream Casino.
MS. DUGAN: And what is — is Gulfstream Casino and Gulfstream Park?
RAMZI NABER: Gulfstream Park and Casino is one and all. It's a racetrack, casino, and shopping center with various restaurants and shop clothing facilities.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and is Hallandale kind of like in between Fort Lauderdale and Miami?
RAMZI NABER: Yeah, it's between — Hollywood is the next city, and Aventura. But yeah, Miami and Fort Lauderdale is a bigger scope, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Yes. Okay, um, now you said today that it might have been 2012 to 2016 that you owned the club. Uh, you had a deposition in this case, right, where the defense and the State had an opportunity to ask you questions?
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and that was in — let's see — January of 2022?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, um, I'm looking at page 18, lines 8 and 9.
MS. DUGAN: You were asked a lot of questions that day. Okay.
MS. DUGAN: In that deposition, looking at lines 8 and 9, when you were asked when did you sell Club Fate, did you say 2015?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. So would 2012 to 2016 be more accurate?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And you said that you would do the cash-outs at the time. Now, was your club at the time, most of the sales were cash or credit card?
RAMZI NABER: Club Fate was 90%, I would say, credit cards versus cash. And the employees literally were carrying their own banks, so they will cash out the guest if there's cash involved, and they cash out at the end of the night with me, surrendering how many credit cards and how many cash vouchers they had. And they cashed out at the end of the night. But 90% of the sales were credit cards.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so if 90% of the sales are credit cards, the servers, the bartenders, they're gonna come cash out with you at the end of the night. You'll see how much they're owed of their tips from their credit card sales, right?
RAMZI NABER: Okay, and then where they paid that through a paycheck, they got their credit cards on their paycheck, and whatever cash tips they received, they kept that night.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and a lot of the people, a lot of times people don't tell you how much cash that they receive.
RAMZI NABER: No, unfortunately, this business.
MS. DUGAN: Right, but the cash — the amount of cash sales that y'all were doing at the time was only about 10% of your total sales in total.
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so were you super concerned with the servers keeping the cash that they got and not reporting it to you since it was such a small percentage of your business?
RAMZI NABER: No. The percentage of the cash sold by the employee is definitely paid to us 100%. The unknown part was the cash tips the employee is making off that cash sale. Right. So we always declared 100% of the credit card tips to ADP or the payroll company.
RAMZI NABER: It'll be this so they can be taxed accordingly, you know, from their pay.
MS. DUGAN: Right, right. But I'm just saying, sometimes they might not tell you exactly how much cash they were tipped.
RAMZI NABER: But yeah, they will almost 100% of the time never tell you how much cash they got.
MS. DUGAN: Right. I guess my question is, but you knew that. But at the same time, the total amount of cash business y'all are doing is such a small percentage of your total business, correct? That's not going to make or break you.
RAMZI NABER: No.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Um, um, now tell me about Gulfstream Park. What's that like?
RAMZI NABER: Gulfstream is a racetrack with a casino. That's the main attraction there. The shopping center, you know, it has multiple different shops including some chain operations such as Texas de Brazil, Brio, Three Forks. Unfortunately, through the years Gulfstream has not done a good job in taking care of their people that are leasing from them, and so a lot of these restaurants have closed through the years. What's left is probably nominal compared to the number of businesses that were there initially.
MS. DUGAN: So what about —
RAMZI NABER: Go ahead, I'm sorry. It's just a very transient place. It's in and out, just people go in and go out. It wasn't a popular destination except for the casino part.
MS. DUGAN: Is it a high-end area?
RAMZI NABER: No.
MS. DUGAN: Are the — I guess, is it a more white-collar, blue-collar area as far as the people that frequent the racetrack?
RAMZI NABER: Attracted both. You have the white collar and the blue collar. The white collar mostly are the horse owners, and, you know, the blue collar is the ones that are betting on it, but it had both.
MS. DUGAN: Would the horse owners, the white-collar crowd, go to Club Fate?
RAMZI NABER: No.
MS. DUGAN: Um, you told me about a couple of the restaurants just now that were in Club Fate, and you mentioned some like national chains like Brio. You said Brio is gone but used to be there. Okay, so Brio is like a national high-end Italian restaurant chain?
RAMZI NABER: Yeah.
MS. DUGAN: Uh, Laredo's — what —
RAMZI NABER: Laredo's, Three Forks, is owned by the same chain. They went out of business there too. Laredo's is kind of like a high-end Mexican restaurant.
MS. DUGAN: Yeah, Three Forks was a steakhouse. And so those national chains all brought nice restaurants there, but they ended up failing, ended up going out of business.
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And I've left a couple of items on the witness stand that I showed the defense before, right before you came on. That's gonna be 86E through H. Do you see 86E-H?
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Do you recognize those to be showing the location of Club Fate and also the front door of Club Fate?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Are those true and accurate depictions of where it's located and what it looks like from the outside?
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. At this time, I move 86E-H into evidence.
JUDGE WHEELER: Any objection?
MR. DECOSTE: No, Your Honor.
JUDGE WHEELER: All right. Exhibit 86E-H, is that what you're saying?
MS. DUGAN: Yes, Your Honor.
JUDGE WHEELER: All right, be admitted.
OFF RECORD: Name?
MS. DUGAN: To get us oriented here, down here at the bottom of the A50, that's Miami?
RAMZI NABER: Yes. Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Up here towards the top, I guess I just have the last, but that looks like Fort Lauderdale?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And Club Fate is here in the middle, kind of close to Hollywood?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Closer a view of where Club Fate is in that area?
RAMZI NABER: That is correct.
MS. DUGAN: And so this whole area right here is Old Spring Park?
RAMZI NABER: Yes, it is.
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
RAMZI NABER: The elevator entrance to the second floor where Club Fate was on top of Yard House.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so if you wanted to enter Club Fate, or a customer would, they would come in the front door here and go up an elevator?
RAMZI NABER: They would take the elevator up that brings them to the second floor. Those small two windows are actually Club Fate. The large window is the lobby of the elevator area.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and this restaurant is not connected to Club Fate?
RAMZI NABER: No, no.
RAMZI NABER: It's a different chain.
MS. DUGAN: Now, it looks like kind of the third entrance maybe to that restaurant?
RAMZI NABER: I think it was the kitchen delivery area, yeah.
MS. DUGAN: So when Club Fate first opened, what was your vision for it?
RAMZI NABER: When I first opened it, I partnered with a famous DJ that lives in Miami. His name is Markus Schulz.
RAMZI NABER: He's an electronic dance music icon in Miami, originally from Germany.
RAMZI NABER: So he partnered with me on the project to open an electronic dance music concept in Gulfstream.
RAMZI NABER: Unfortunately, you know, it took us about a year of keep funding it that wasn't working. So we tried to sell at that point, several attempts. Gulfstream denied a couple of sales because we brought a Brazilian concept and they had Texas de Brazil. So they couldn't do it because of the concept that we're bringing in, the people that were buying it. Ended up switching it to a hip-hop nightclub, which is playing, you know, urban music, and that's what kept it open through the years. No, but it was not a successful venue. I ended up buying my partner out and I ended up just walking away almost with minimal investment money back. I sold half to one of my promoters who's operated since that year until now, and with COVID and all that, you know, it was closed for a couple of years by order of the governor. So I haven't even gotten my money out of it yet.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Um, when... what is it... was it turned into a hip-hop club after you sold it in 2016?
RAMZI NABER: The last year, or maybe year and a half, of me operating it, it was a hip-hop club. So I would say 2014-and-a-half to 2016 it was hip-hop for sure.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Okay. Now, was it popular when you first opened it? Did y'all do well at first?
RAMZI NABER: It never did well. I mean, compared to what our expectation was, no.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. I guess the first two weeks, did y'all have more people than you had the rest of the time?
RAMZI NABER: We did, because Markus is very famous.
RAMZI NABER: So he played for our club for free as a result, because I couldn't afford to have him play there. You know, he gets paid a hundred thousand per event. So he played a couple of times at the opening night and a month later, that period. Yes, there was.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. So the first month, when it first opens and the DJ's there, y'all got some good business?
RAMZI NABER: Yeah, and the grand opening and so forth, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. But he didn't continue playing there?
RAMZI NABER: No.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And then after that, did it continue to do well, or it just kind of fizzled out?
RAMZI NABER: Kind of like started dropping slowly.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Um, did any... did y'all have celebrities that would come in?
RAMZI NABER: No celebrities, but we had some other named DJs play there, like David Tort and other names that are in the industry. And, you know, those nights there'd be a little bit of action, but nothing really what we expected, and barely covered the cost of the DJ at that point. They were very expensive.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Did you have high-end clientele that would come in and spend a lot of money?
RAMZI NABER: I would say it was mediocre. It wasn't high-end, no. I mean, Club LIV in Miami is high-end. We were nowhere near that. So it's not high-end, no.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Um, and did y'all have bottle service there?
RAMZI NABER: We did.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Uh, about what was the cost of the bottles?
RAMZI NABER: $150. I would say $150 to $200, depends. Depends on the bottle.
MS. DUGAN: About $150 a bottle?
RAMZI NABER: Per bottle, yeah.
MS. DUGAN: Maybe up to $200 a bottle?
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Did you ever have girls that did liquor promotions there?
RAMZI NABER: I don't know what you mean by liquor promotion.
MS. DUGAN: Like maybe have a type of liquor they're promoting and offer people a taste of it?
RAMZI NABER: If that would have happened, it would have been sponsored by a liquor company and not my girls. And it would be done by models that they would hire directly to sell that item or to pass along. And it's done through — Florida law prohibits the sale of like promotional items, so the guy has to buy the bottle from me; we can't give it away.
MS. DUGAN: Okay.
RAMZI NABER: So the company would buy two bottles and they'll give samples to the guests, but they hire models to do that. It won't be our staff.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so your staff would have been made up of what?
RAMZI NABER: Bartenders and servers. Just the two bartenders behind the main bar and the servers. And at that point when we opened, we also had sushi in the front, so we had a bar in the front that was serving sushi. So there'd be cooks, bartenders, and servers.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. How many servers and bartenders — you said two bartenders, how many servers would work?
RAMZI NABER: We never had more than six on a weekend. That would be the max.
MS. DUGAN: About how often did your employees work?
RAMZI NABER: Yeah, I mean, we didn't work anybody more than four nights max. I don't even know if we opened Mondays — I'm trying to remember. But most of the business came on Friday and Saturday, and one busy weekday night would have been like ladies' night, Wednesday or Thursday. So it'd be like three nights — the majority is when we needed the most of the staff. The rest of them could be ran by two girls on the floor because it wasn't that busy.
MS. DUGAN: Now, about how much did your employees — how much were they taking home a week at that point?
RAMZI NABER: Um, I think everybody's averaging about a thousand a week.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Um, I asked you earlier about the deposition, looking at page 11, through — page 11, lines 13 through 19.
MR. DECOSTE: Objection.
MR. DECOSTE: Improper refreshment. The witness didn't say he didn't remember.
JUDGE WHEELER: Well, are you refreshing his recollection, or are you impeaching him?
JUDGE WHEELER: Right, you may proceed.
MR. DECOSTE: Objection.
JUDGE WHEELER: Overruled.
MR. DECOSTE: Same as the prior objection as to impeaching your own witness.
JUDGE WHEELER: Right, overruled.
MS. DUGAN: Page 11, line 11 through 19, if you could just read that.
RAMZI NABER: 11 through 19? Sorry.
RAMZI NABER: I'm sorry, I can't.
RAMZI NABER: 17?
MS. DUGAN: Yeah, 18 and 19. 18 and 19.
MS. DUGAN: That's all.
MS. DUGAN: Everybody in the bar was averaging about five to six hundred dollars a week?
RAMZI NABER: Yeah, I think there we were talking about tips.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. So if you add up the tips and the hours, it's gonna be a little bit higher. But depends on how many shifts. Do you work—
RAMZI NABER: If you work— it was— if you go further, I think we said about two hundred, two hundred— two hundred fifty dollars a shift. It was like a good day for them. So it depends on how many shifts you had. So if you had four shifts, you're making 800; you have three shifts, you're making 600. So it depends on how many shifts you had. Okay, so I mean, you have to put it in the context of the rest of it, but, you know, it was 200, 250 dollars per employee, and it was a good night.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, thank you for clearing that up. So a good night for your employees was 200 to 250 a night, depending on how many nights a week you worked.
RAMZI NABER: Yeah.
MS. DUGAN: How long you worked.
RAMZI NABER: Yes. Could get up to a thousand a night.
MS. DUGAN: If you only work two nights—
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: If you work three nights. But the majority was just like the weekend, right? When you needed an entire staff would be those three nights, the Friday, Saturday, and one weeknight.
RAMZI NABER: One weeknight.
MS. DUGAN: Gotcha. And if you work two nights, like maybe say you only work two nights a week, Friday and Saturday, and you made 200 to 250 a night, you were making 400 to 500.
RAMZI NABER: Yeah.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. That was average?
RAMZI NABER: Yeah.
MS. DUGAN: I guess— I mean, y'all obviously had a bar in your club, and you said you had sushi in the front. Uh, what was the rest of the club like? What was the layout?
RAMZI NABER: It was a booth— but one large booth in the front, and there was one, two— eight booths in the main club area, and the rest to stand up. And there was some seating in the front on high tops for the sushi area.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. So sushi high tops—
RAMZI NABER: Or a patio.
MS. DUGAN: I'm sorry, on the patio. Okay, thank you. You could sit at a high top in the sushi area, go to the bar, or pick one of eight booths, or go to the patio.
RAMZI NABER: Yeah. I mean, if you came to eat, you would have sat at the high tops or the patio, or if you're a smoker. But the club itself, the eight big booths and the large booth in the front, was for the club service, if you will — if you're opening a bottle or, you know, listening to the music.
MS. DUGAN: And do you remember a woman named Katherine Magbanua who worked at Club Fate when it was open?
RAMZI NABER: I do.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. How long did she work at Club Fate for?
RAMZI NABER: It was not a long period.
RAMZI NABER: Like I said, she was like a shooting star.
RAMZI NABER: She wasn't one of those that was there for a while. I believe it was months.
RAMZI NABER: If I had to guess, I would have said maybe three months.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Shooting star meaning came quickly, left quickly?
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And what was her job at Club Fate?
RAMZI NABER: A cocktail server.
MS. DUGAN: Do you have any reason to believe she would have made more or less than the $200 to $250 a night that you told us about for average career employees?
RAMZI NABER: I don't believe so.
MS. DUGAN: Do you remember the circumstances surrounding her leaving? Why she left?
RAMZI NABER: Not really.
MS. DUGAN: Did you keep employee records when you owned the club?
RAMZI NABER: We did.
MS. DUGAN: And do you still have them?
RAMZI NABER: No.
MS. DUGAN: Why not? What happened?
RAMZI NABER: Initially, all the paperwork that was in boxes in the Club Fate office was destroyed — water damage. There was a major leak from the hurricane, from the roof, that came straight into the office area, and we had to throw everything in the garbage that was in the office after the insurance. And then the Gulfstream staff, the main staff, came and repaired the roof. But whatever records we had, it would have been with the payroll company, or that was in the office. Whatever is in the office is done.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Was the office the only part of the club that was damaged?
RAMZI NABER: The major leak was by the area, yes, and there was damage over Yard House from our area as well, but it's in the same vicinity.
MS. DUGAN: Where were the employee records in relation to where the leak was?
RAMZI NABER: Right under.
MS. DUGAN: I just wanted to clear up one thing. Were your servers paid in like an hourly tipped employee wage?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so the amount that your employees made — they'd make, obviously, their hourly tipped employee wage. Would they get that every month in a paycheck?
RAMZI NABER: It was bi-weekly, and if I recall, it was around — at that time, the minimum wage tipped employee was around maybe five, five dollars and three cents or something like that.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so it barely covered the taxes on their credit cards, you know, from the credit card.
RAMZI NABER: Whatever we claimed — 100% of the credit card tips — so, you know, it just offsets it, kind of.
MS. DUGAN: Gotcha. So the average of $200 to $250 a night you're talking about — that's how much the employee was, like, tipped that night, that they're taking home?
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. From your sales?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. That's all I have. Thank you.
JUDGE WHEELER: Cross-examination.
MR. DECOSTE: Mr. Naber, how are you?
RAMZI NABER: Oh, good. How are you doing?
MR. DECOSTE: Well. Doing well. They shouldn't be too long now. You referenced a moment ago Club LIV.
RAMZI NABER: LIV, yeah.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, for the jurors here, if you could describe what Club LIV is. You compared it to your club.
MR. DECOSTE: Club LIV is the club, right?
RAMZI NABER: It's the club, yeah. It's run by David Grutman with Groot Hospitality, and it is the model that all other nightclubs hope to have.
MR. DECOSTE: Correct. A capacity of what — 10,000, 20,000?
MR. DECOSTE: I could be way off on those numbers.
RAMZI NABER: Yeah, you're way off on that. LIV's capacity — maybe 2,000, and that's within an amphitheater at the Fontainebleau Hotel, where the likes of Frank Sinatra used to play. They used to be that, yeah. They have the most sophisticated sound equipment and lighting equipment.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, in comparison to a club like that, Fate is small.
RAMZI NABER: Very.
MR. DECOSTE: If you compare it to your local bar, Fate is comparable. Now, local bar — now, it's not a sleepy bar with one regular at the end of the bar, nobody else in there, right?
RAMZI NABER: We have plenty of nights like that, but you also—
RAMZI NABER: Trust me, if it works, it works. When it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
MR. DECOSTE: You would have kept the club if it were doing that well.
RAMZI NABER: If it was good, I'd still be there.
MR. DECOSTE: But you'd agree with me that although there weren't Club LIV nights with the likes of all celebrities and athletes, you did have your nights when we first opened.
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MR. DECOSTE: All right. Now let's talk about your communications with law enforcement. You were contacted by them after you sold the club, right?
RAMZI NABER: I believe so.
MR. DECOSTE: And I know your memory is a little bit off on this, but do you believe that it was right at the beginning of the pandemic, in March of 2020?
RAMZI NABER: I think it's prior to the pandemic.
MR. DECOSTE: All right. So my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, there is only two times that law enforcement contact you.
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: And you remember that the FBI was mentioned, correct?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: And they only contacted you by phone?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: And the information that you were able to convey to them — actually, strike that, let me give you a different question. Would you rely on the memory of the law enforcement officers as to when they spoke to you?
RAMZI NABER: Me?
MR. DECOSTE: Yeah.
RAMZI NABER: Yeah.
MR. DECOSTE: Should we ask them, instead of going with your memory of when the communications were?
RAMZI NABER: I think you're better off going with them, yes.
MR. DECOSTE: Okay. So you talk to them and they ask you questions about Ms. Magbanua, and you'd agree with me that you vaguely remember — using your words — vaguely remember her employment and the details about it.
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: All right. Now, you were asked by Ms. Dugan the amount of time that Catherine worked there. You'd agree with me that it was months that she was there.
RAMZI NABER: I said it was months.
MR. DECOSTE: And even that is an estimate, because you vaguely remember.
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: Take your time.
MR. DECOSTE: May I approach, Your Honor, on this?
JUDGE WHEELER: You may.
MR. DECOSTE: Mr. Naber, I'm showing you — the green mark is Defense A team.
MR. DECOSTE: You know what that is, right?
RAMZI NABER: Yeah. That's a photograph of Catherine Magbanua.
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MR. DECOSTE: And that's a photograph of Catherine Magbanua as she looked around the time that she worked for you?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: And that fairly and accurately depicts the employee that you had during that time?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: Thanks.
JUDGE WHEELER: Any objection? Okay.
MR. DECOSTE: So Mr. Naber, I want to make sure — you're going to have to explain this to me, because even I was a little bit confused. So your employees are making, on average — and again, these are rough estimates, correct? Is that correct?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: Five to six hundred dollars per week. Now, walk me through, and I apologize if I'm confusing your words. So I come into Club Fate and I get bottles, I get sushi, whatever it is, and I pay on my credit card and I tip on my credit card. That's the information that you as the owner know about, and then you pay out the tip portion to the employee?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, if I come in there and I use my credit card and I buy a bunch of stuff, and then my buddy goes, "You know what, you pay for the sushi and you pay for the booze, let me pay the tip in cash" — you don't know about that, right?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: There's a good chance you don't know about it, for sure. And that's standard in the industry, right?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: With respect to tips.
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, if I come in and it's just cash and I pay for whatever it is I'm buying in cash, and I tip in cash, those tips as well, too — you, as the owner, you wouldn't know about.
RAMZI NABER: I wouldn't know the cash part of it, no. I know about the cash sale, but I don't know about how much the person left them.
MR. DECOSTE: You know the cash sale because you're going to ring up the drinks and ring up —
RAMZI NABER: Well, they can't get the drink without a ticket. But, you know, printing at the bar or the food station, so I'll know it was rung up.
MR. DECOSTE: So that five to six hundred, that can be put in the credit card, but we don't know the cash amount.
RAMZI NABER: We don't know the cash amount tip the employees make off of a cash sale. That is correct.
MR. DECOSTE: So if it's $100, $200, $300 in tips, it would be the $500, the $600.
RAMZI NABER: If that's the case, yes.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, is it not encouraged in the industry for servers to get cash tips because it offsets the tax liability for the business?
RAMZI NABER: Encouraged — all restaurants prefer cash, of course, over credit. However, in the credit card — in the nightclub business, especially in that area until — it's now, even my restaurant now, the cash sales does not exceed 10 percent of the gross sales of the restaurant. This day and age, cash has become, you know, a commodity that's not available in our restaurant business. It's all credit cards right now. Yeah. Now, eight years ago — if the clientele was, for example, hip-hop, that formula switches completely from 90/10 to possibly, you know, 60 cash / 40 credit cards. So it switches — it depends on the concept that you have. But as an electronic dance music nightclub that we were, we knew it's going to be 90 credit cards.
MR. DECOSTE: You'd agree with me, though, that there was a little bit more use of cash back in 2014 than there is now in 2022?
RAMZI NABER: Oh, yeah, I would say that, yeah.
MR. DECOSTE: All right. The point that we're trying to make — I'm not trying to change your 90, but you, as the owner, you don't know. It's five to six hundred average, plus cash tips.
RAMZI NABER: Yeah, I don't know what they made in cash tips. That is true.
MR. DECOSTE: All right. Now, the records — that's my last topic. The records that you have — records.
RAMZI NABER: Yeah, there were employee records, no doubt about that. What we had to do — she would have had to fill out her W-2s, or, you know, 1099 her, you know, picture of her social security, uh, picture of her ID. It has to be in her file. All that was in the office.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, that would also have the information as to what — what you're giving the rough estimates on, the five to six hundred. We would be able to know the exact amounts, right?
RAMZI NABER: The payroll — not from the record, we wouldn't. The payroll is with the payroll company. That has nothing to do with the file. The file doesn't have — we don't have a copy of their paycheck in the file.
MR. DECOSTE: But you do have a copy of the check that you'd write to them on the credit card tips, right? Stuff like that. Let me withdraw that and ask in a different way. Within that box of records that was destroyed, you would have records of what you paid Ms. Magbanua, correct?
MR. DECOSTE: Okay. But unfortunately, that happened to be in a paper box in the exact corner of your office where there was a flood, and it all got ruined.
RAMZI NABER: So it wasn't just one box, it was 10 boxes. But those 10 boxes — it wasn't just hers, it's everybody else.
MR. DECOSTE: Oh, no, no — I'm not trying to say, like, why were hers just in the corner. But you agree with me that in the office, you've got boxes in the corner, and it's a plug, literally —
RAMZI NABER: Yeah, yeah.
RAMZI NABER: Computer, everything underneath that was destroyed.
MR. DECOSTE: Had law enforcement come to you years ago, before that happened — understanding you're not really sure, do you know when the flood happened? Do you know if it was before 2016?
RAMZI NABER: We're going to look up when the hurricane was there. I'll tell you the exact year, but it was from that major hurricane that came through Florida and did a lot of damage.
MR. DECOSTE: All right. You'd agree with me, though, that the chances of getting the documents — whether they were wet and partially destroyed, or even replacing them — it would have been better to get in touch with you back years ago, in 2016, '17, '18, instead of waiting until the next decade?
RAMZI NABER: All I know is there was two attempts from them to speak to me, well after you sold the club. No one — I don't know the exact times, I really don't. I'll be lying if I told you what time and when. I remember a phone call with a message left on my voicemail saying, "I'm so-and-so with the FBI, give me a call back. Okay, we're trying to get to you. The club is closed, we can't get in." And it would have been during the day, probably — they're trying to come talk to somebody in the office, and we don't open during the day.
MR. DECOSTE: If I were to tell you that first communication was in 2020 — and I understand, I'm not asking you to agree, I'll take your word —
RAMZI NABER: I'll take your word for it, because I have no recollection.
MR. DECOSTE: So if it were 2020, which it was —
MS. DUGAN: Objection to counsel testifying.
JUDGE WHEELER: That's sustained. You just said you weren't going to suggest them, make them agree, and that's exactly what you're doing.
MR. DECOSTE: Okay, Your Honor. I'll phrase it in a different way.
MR. DECOSTE: Okay. So, Mr. Naber, had law enforcement come to you before 2020, would there not have been a greater chance of getting the documentation and the exact numbers from Ms. Magbanua?
RAMZI NABER: I don't know if they could, because in 2016 I didn't have keys for the place anymore — so I couldn't be — I don't have access to the place since the partner, the guy that took over as the managing of the business, Philip Houston. I don't have keys to the business till this day, so I don't have access to see what was in the office. And that's what I told them at that time — that I did not have, I don't know what part of the damage was part of hers or not, but I didn't have access to it, period.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, is there any doubt in your mind whatsoever that Katherine Magbanua worked at your business, Club Fate?
RAMZI NABER: No, she worked at the club, yes.
MR. DECOSTE: Should any financial analysis of her income not include employment with your business? If you need me to rephrase, let me know.
RAMZI NABER: Yeah.
MR. DECOSTE: If there was financial analysis done of Ms. Magbanua over the years, would it be wrong for it not to include the time that she worked for you at Club Fate?
RAMZI NABER: No, it should include Club Fate, yeah.
MR. DECOSTE: Because she worked it?
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MR. DECOSTE: I'm showing you now what's been entered in as Government's —
MR. DECOSTE: — 86th.
MR. DECOSTE: Do you know what that is?
RAMZI NABER: It's a hip-hop bar in Hollywood, Florida.
MR. DECOSTE: All right. Are you close with any of the owners there?
RAMZI NABER: No, I did purchase some of their old couches for Club Fate.
MR. DECOSTE: What are the chances? All right, you don't know how much the servers make there, do you?
RAMZI NABER: I have no clue, but I know it's a different clientele.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, if we were to want to know the level of income of the bottle service in that club — how much somebody would make — we should have somebody come here from that club, right?
MR. DECOSTE: All right. No, no, I'm asking you — if you want to know what they make there, we'll ask them.
RAMZI NABER: Yes.
MR. DECOSTE: One second. Nothing further, Your Honor.
JUDGE WHEELER: Redirect.
MS. DUGAN: You've you've said that Katherine Magbanua worked for you for months — you precisely said not more than three months, right?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And you said it made money when it first opened — are you talking about that month time period that you told me about?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And then after that, you said it just didn't work. If it had worked, you'd still be running it.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And in your experience in the restaurant and nightclub business — when most people, you said 90% of your business is from credit cards or your sales — when people buy dinner, bottles, drinks, whatever, on their credit card, do they also put a tip on that credit card?
RAMZI NABER: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. That's all. Thank you.
JUDGE WHEELER: We can release the witness. All right, thank you. Have a good day.