Beach Dispatch: Pacific East Owner Arrested

Slowly but surely, the restaurant formerly known as Pacific East, closed officially in the fall of 2007, has come completely undone. The owners are estranged, and now co-owner and chef Michael Castino has been arrested on charges that he wrote bad checks on behalf of the restaurant to former employees and vendors. The East Hampton Press has more:

The owner of the closed Amagansett restaurant Pacific East faces multiple misdemeanor charges for allegedly writing bad checks to a former employee and two vendors. East Hampton Town Police charged Michael Castino Jr., 40, of East Hampton with six counts of issuing a bad check after they arrested him on January 15. According to police, the six checks were worth a total of $5,226. Police also charged Mr. Castino with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, which is also a misdemeanor.

Mr. Castino closed his Asian-fusion restaurant on Montauk Highway in Amagansett on September 29, 2007, after running it for 10 years. Police said that they have received complaints from two vendors and one former employee of the restaurant who received the checks in September and August last year. They would not reveal who the complainants were. After conducting an investigation, police issued a warrant for Mr. Castino’s arrest in January and arrested him on January 15 on Three Mile Harbor Road. Aram Sabet, a former co-owner of the restaurant who left the business in July 2006, said that he had received calls from multiple business owners and employees of the restaurant who said they had not been compensated by Mr. Castino for their services.