A Kansas attorney and restaurateur who owns three well-known Des Moines metro bar-restaurants has been indicted on federal charges of identity theft and wire fraud.
Scott Anderson, of the Kansas City suburb of Lenexa, Kansas, is one of the partners in Riley Drive Entertainment, which owns Tonic Bar in West Des Moines, Saints Pub + Patio in Waukee and the Beaver Tap in Beaverdale. It also owned the since-shuttered Saints Pub + Patio in Beaverdale, and Anderson previously operated Des Moines restaurants under the names Taco Hangover and Union 29.
The company is a prominent player in the metro restaurant scene, and led an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit that went all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court, challenging Gov. Kim Reynolds' orders shutting down restaurants in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
An indictment filed last month in Kansas federal court alleges that Anderson has been falsifying loan documents, and at times impersonating his business partners, going back to at least 2018, on behalf of his companies. He faces 14 federal charges and attempts by the government to reclaim potentially millions of dollars he obtained via the alleged schemes.
It's not clear from the indictment if any of the loans in question were directly tied to any of Riley Drive's Iowa restaurants, but the two business partners identified as victims of identity theft are both Iowa residents.
Anderson has not yet entered a plea, and his attorney denied wrongdoing on his behalf.
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