Owners of Georgetown’s Ristorante Piccolo Sentenced for Stealing COVID-19 Funds [Updated] | Eater DC

"A romantic Georgetown trattoria with a second-floor balcony overlooking the historic C&O Canal, Ristorante Piccolo was a decades-old, 37-year neighborhood mainstay that earned recognition such as a 2019 Rammy finalist nomination for Service Program of the Year and an Honorary Milestone Rammy Award in 2021. I note that the restaurant is currently closed after a two-alarm fire on June 29 that destroyed part of the space (it previously sustained fire damage in 2008), and its OpenTable listing indicated it would be at least four months before reopening with first available seatings showing for October 1. The restaurant's owner, Gholam “Tony” Kowkabi, pleaded guilty to stealing COVID-19 relief funds—admitting to misappropriating roughly $738,000 of pandemic aid (part of $1.6 million he received across programs, including $631,800 from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund)—and to evading $1.35 million in taxes from 1998–2018; he was sentenced to 57 months in prison, his wife received 24 months of probation, and they agreed to pay restitution and forfeit personal real estate assets bought with relief funds." - Tierney Plumb