A restaurant on Worcester’s Grafton Street, Accra Girls, has been seized by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) due to unpaid taxes. The seizure was indicated by two orange signs posted on the building’s windows at 1280 Grafton Street.
Accra Girls, which opened in 2017, offers traditional Ghanaian dishes such as Jollof rice, boiled yam and spinach stew, and Banku, a starchy dish made from corn and cassava doughs. The restaurant’s Instagram page describes its mission as offering “hospitality on a plate”.
The co-owners, Emmanuel Larbi and Manasseh Konabu, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Similarly, the Department of Revenue has not commented on the timing of the seizure.
This seizure is not an isolated incident, as other restaurants in Massachusetts have faced similar actions due to unpaid taxes. For instance, a Holyoke Mall eatery, Latino’s Cuisine, was seized by state officials for nonpayment of taxes. In another case, the owner of Red’s Sandwich Shop in Salem and Red’s Kitchen and Tavern in Peabody was sentenced to prison for a multi-million dollar tax fraud scheme.