Ex-Sacramento councilmember Loloee to plead guilty. Here’s the key allegations
Former Sacramento City Councilmember Sean Loloee is set to plead guilty Thursday to federal charges connected to allegations he mistreated immigrants at his grocery stores stemming from a yearslong scheme involving fraud, tax violations and interference with federal investigations at his Sacramento-area grocery stores.
Loloee owned and operated Viva Supermarkets, a small capital grocery chain with locations in North Sacramento, Del Paso Heights, Rancho Cordova and Dixon that primarily served Latino communities. Former employees previously told The Sacramento Bee the stores relied heavily on immigrant labor and were marked by allegations of wage theft, intimidation and poor working conditions, claims Loloee has denied.
The federal indictment, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in December 2023, included allegations that Loloee hired undocumented immigrants at his Viva Supermarket stores, then underpaid them or failed to pay overtime. It also alleged Loloee lied on an application for federal COVID-19 relief funds and attempted to obstruct multiple federal investigations into the stores, including while he sat on the council.
The indictment was filed about a year and a half after The Bee reported Loloee did not live in the North Sacramento district he was elected to represent. Loloee remained on the council for over a year after that report, then resigned shortly after the indictment.
The indictment also confirmed The Bee’s reporting that Loloee lived with his family in his wife’s $1.4 million home in Granite Bay. As of Monday, he still owns the Hagginwood house and claimed a $7,000 homeowner’s exemption on his 2025 tax bill.
After more than two years since the case began, Loloee is set to plead guilty Thursday.
10 allegations in the indictment
• Shahriar “Sean” Loloee regularly hired undocumented immigrants because “undocumented workers were easier to control,” the indictment said.
• Loloee and Karla Montoya — a store manager who is also a defendant and is not a party to the plea deal — threatened workers with “adverse immigration consequences” if they went against Loloee.
• The pair required employees who did not speak English to sign untranslated documents they did not understand, then later used the contents against them.
• Loloee paid certain undocumented workers in cash, typically without a pay stub. He also paid certain employees via a “green check,” which could only be cashed at Western Union offices within the Viva Supermarket stores. The workers were charged a 2% surcharge to cash those checks, which went to Loloee’s pocket. He did not report the green checks as wages on tax returns.
• At times, Loloee required employees to receive a portion of their pay as store credit.
• To avoid federally required overtime, Loloee moved employees to “salaried” positions without raises or split pay between checks and cash, according to the indictment.
• The U.S. Department of Labor started investigating Loloee’s supermarkets in 2008, and required Loloee to pay employees about $3,496 in back wages. In 2020, weeks after Loloee was sworn into the City Council, federal officials again determined Loloee owed employees back pay, this time $35,423. Neither of those actions were known to the public. Loloee later asked the employees to return the money.
• In 2022, the department filed a lawsuit against Loloee, Montoya and Viva Supermarkets seeking $1.5 million in back wages, liquidated damages, and civil monetary penalties. That civil suit, first reported by The Bee, was the first time any federal government actions against the stores were public. That suit has been put on pause while the criminal case has been ongoing.
• To block federal officials from investigating, Loloee assigned undocumented workers to less visible areas of the store or told them to remove their uniforms while investigators were present, according to the indictment. He also had some employees impersonate federal officials to determine which workers were cooperating and paid a person to pose as a customer.
• To apply for federal COVID-19 relief funds, Loloee reported about $5.2 million in gross receipts for one business when actual receipts were about $7.7 million, according to federal prosecutors. He received about $1.2 million in federal relief funds as a result.
What’s next?
Loloee is scheduled to enter his plea at 9:30 a.m. Thursday before U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley in Sacramento federal court, according to court filings.
The change-of-plea hearing comes after Loloee initially pleaded not guilty to the charges following his 2023 indictment. Prosecutors and defense attorneys signaled last week that a deal had been reached.
Details of the agreement are expected to be outlined in court during Thursday’s hearing, when Loloee formally admits guilt and the judge determines whether to accept the plea. It’s not clear which charges he’s agreed to plead to.
Montoya and two other defendants charged in the case are not part of the agreement and are scheduled to proceed toward a September trial.
