The owner and operator of Hamburguesas El Gordo has been charged with 10 felony tax crimes in connection with the restaurant chain.

Claudia Iveth Gutierrez Mendez was charged Tuesday in Dakota County District Court with five counts of filing a false or fraudulent tax return, four counts of failure to pay taxes and one count of failure to file a tax return in connection with her business, which currently has locations in St. Paul, West St. Paul and Minneapolis.

An audit determined that Gutierrez Mendez owes more than $260,000 in state taxes, the charges say.

Gutierrez Mendez, 40, of Maplewood, was charged by summons and is not in custody. She declined to comment on the charges when reached by phone Wednesday. She is scheduled to make a first court appearance June 18.

The charges allege investigators with the Minnesota Department of Revenue discovered that between March 2018 and November 2022 Gutierrez Mendez filed tax returns that underrepresented sales and the sales tax owed by the business.

Gutierrez Mendez did not file tax returns between December 2022 and February 2023 “despite conducting business as usual and collecting taxes from customers,” the charges allege.

In an interview with investigators in September, Gutierrez Mendez said she could not explain the discrepancies, the charges say. She told investigators “she made a lot of different mistakes in different areas when operating her businesses.”

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