His arrest in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, was not the first time George Tanios has faced criminal charges.
There was an uttering charge in 2010, then false pretenses.
He also faces a civil suit brought by a former business partner.
He’s the owner of Sandwich University, which is famous for its “over-the-top” sandwiches. The shop used to be on High Street, in a small building above Massullo’s that has since been razed. Its current location is 708 Beechurst Ave.
Tanios received $202,110 in COVID-19 related bailout money through his company Lebanese Connection LLC. One loan, under the Paycheck Protection Program, was for $52,110. The other $150,000 came in the form of an Economic Injury Disaster Loan.
Tanios is involved in an on-going civil lawsuit filed in April 2012 by his former business partner, Kenneth Dufalla. The lawsuit alleges Tanios paid himself “significant sums for his personal living and lifestyle expenses well in excess of his agreed upon salary” from the shared business, and did not divide the year-end profits equally for three years.
The case was set to go to trial March 31, 2020, but was rescheduled due to COVID-19 concerns. The most recent entry to the case, on June 23, suggests Tanios was bankrupt. A case was filed in the West Virginia Northern District Bankruptcy Court in May 2020 by Tanios. It is still open.
In October 2020, Tanios told a media outlet he was the victim of a “hate crime” after a rock was thrown through a window of his business, which held a Trump 2020 sign.
He’s also disliked by many of his former employees.
Josh Lambert said he was a delivery driver for Tanios for about 2.5 months in 2019. Lambert said the first red flag for him was when Tanios asked Lambert to start work four hours after he interviewed for the job. Another was when he found out Tanios held tips until payday, unlike every other delivery job he’s had.
Lambert said because of that, he tracked his delivery numbers and individual tips and on either his first or second paycheck discovered he was short about $80. It worked out to him losing about $12 a shift.
“So (I) immediately knew he was trying to take some off the top from me. I have a feeling I wasn’t the first to do this either, because (the manager) quickly found the mistake and paid me out in cash from the register,” which Lambert said he also didn’t think was appropriate.
On his first day, Lambert saw another driver get fired on the spot for talking about interviewing with another restaurant and heard Tanios said something to the effect of “good luck to him getting his last check.”
Kayla Scott said she worked for Tanios as a sandwich maker and driver from April-September 2017. She said during her time she was called derogatory names, not paid on time, and saw racist and threatening behavior towards staff and customers.
Scott quit because Tanios tried to make her work on her scheduled day off when she had plans to babysit a sibling. When she told him she had prior obligations, Tanios and another man called her several derogatory names, she said.
“I didn’t get my final check for a month,” she said.
Scott said she witnessed racist behavior from Tanios and heard him call one Black college student a “dumb n*****”.
Scott also said Tanios would keep tips for himself.
Alex Doyle also said Tanios never paid him after he was fired for visiting home for a week in the summer.
In May 2019, Sandwich University was the subject of an online article that detailed the business’ rude response to customers on Twitter and Google reviews.
“Entire crew is a bunch of losers to be honest,” @SandwichUWV tweeted. “Shouldn’t of (sic) paid any of you. Your life lessons shouldn’t be costing me anything. U should be paying me to teach you how to be contributing members of society. Kinda like you paying for school.”
In response to a one-star review Sandwich University responded, “No, she really deserved it. Terrible lady. I wish diarrhea for your mother too!”
Another response to a one-star review states, “You are delusional. Don’t be sheep people.”
Lambert said Tanios had “like 15 fake restaurants” he ran on GrubHub to try and bypass the negative reviews. They served the same food and were often more expensive.
Not everyone had negative experiences with Tanios.
“Around his family and friends he was just as normal as anyone else in the room,” said Logan Griffin, who babysat Tanios’ son mostly from 2017-19.
“His reputation throughout Morgantown was very spotty with the students as some people hated him and some people loved him.”
He said Tanios’ social media self and the way he was at the shop was a “completely different person than the guy I personally knew.”
“Once he got this evil villain vibe around town then he started using Trump’s values and merchandise around his store and became very political towards his customers as well. The George I knew in 2018 is not the same George that got arrested today,” Griffin said. “As I was close to George personally I would always be quiet in class if people are saying stuff like ‘did you see that Sandwich U guy got into another fight on Twitter’ and act like I didn’t even know the guy.”
Tanios was charged with uttering in 2010. That charge was changed to false pretenses and he was convicted in January 2011, according to documents from Monongalia County Magistrate Court. He was ordered to pay $965.80, but served no jail time.
