On March 3, 2008, representatives of Kosher Miami received information from a private investigator (who would not disclose who he was working for), that he had surveillance of activity that allegedly showed that an employee of Fu Xing Chinese restaurant was buying non-kosher chicken and bringing it into the restaurant.

A delegation of Rabbonim immediately went to the office of the private investigator to watch the video and look at the pictures.

The video showed an employee of Fu Xing going to a non-kosher meat supply house and coming out with cases of chicken. It shows the employee clearly opening the cases of chicken, placing the chicken into his car, and also placing the empty boxes into his car. The video also shows the employee bringing the chicken into a private home. It was alleged that the home belonged to one of the owners of the restaurant.

The photographs showed the employee removing the empty boxes from his car during broad daylight, and of the same employee carrying a garbage bag in his hand at night in the back of Fu Xing Restaurant.

The investigator claimed that the videos were taking on Friday February 22 and Friday February 29, and that the pictures in the rear of the restaurant were taken on Saturday night, March 1, 2008 at 8:00 PM.

Allegations were made that the restaurant was bringing in non kosher chicken and meat for months prior to the surveillance.

Immediately after leaving the office of the private investigator, the delegation of Rabbonim went to Fu Xing. They immediately questioned the employee whom they saw in the pictures, and the employee ran away on foot before answering any questions. The Rabbonim went to the parking lot in the back of the restaurant, found the employees car, and were able to see chicken in a bag inside the automobile.

The restaurant owners claimed that the employee must have been stealing chicken from the restaurant.

As a precautionary measure, the Rabbonim asked the restaurant patrons to leave immediately, and suspended the hashgacha of the restaurant pending further investigation. Kosher Miami issued the following public statement.

“We have surveillance of suspicious activity at Fu Xing. We are now actively investigating the situation. As a precautionary measure we are suspending the KM hashgacha.”

Our investigation so far has not been able to substantiate any of the claims of traif meat or chicken being brought into Fu Xing. We have records of all of the kosher meat and chicken purchased by Fu Xing, and the quantities of kosher meat and chicken being purchased are enormous. The owners of the restaurant did not have access to the meat storage areas, only the mashgiach had the key. The mashgiach was of course present in the kitchen when the bag of chicken was claimed to have been brought in to the restaurant at 8:00 PM on Saturday, March 1, 2008, and he vehemently denies that anything was brought into the kitchen as is being alleged.

To date, neither the owners of the restaurant nor KM representatives have not been able to locate the employee to question him about his activities.

Kosher Miami representatives went with the pictures to the non-kosher meat supply house where the purchases were allegedly made, and asked the management and staff if they recognized the Fu Xing employee as someone who shopped at the supply house. No one was able to recognize him.

It has been reported to Kosher Miami by reliable sources that the private investigator was hired by a competing Chinese restaurant. Considering this, and considering the results of the investigation, Kosher Miami at this time does not believe that the allegations are true, but the investigation is still ongoing.