The federal Department of Labor is forcing a Roxboro restaurant owner to pay $70,000 to a former cook whose immigration status he had investigated after she complained she wasn’t being paid properly.Giovanni Scotti D’Abbusco no longer owns his downtown eatery, Vesuvio’s, and has filed for bankruptcy. He also agreed not to threaten or intimidate any future employees who exercise their rights to be paid what they are legally owed. The same requirement applies to La Piazza Italian Restaurant, the company that now owns the restaurant.Miriam Martinez Solais, a Mexican native who came to the U.S. illegally in 2007, was arrested by local police after a private investigator hired by Scotti D’Abbusco determined she had submitted a fraudulent Social Security card while working for Scotti D’Abbusco. Police and prosecutors said she should pay back all the wages she had been paid because she didn’t have the right to work in this country. Solais has no legal right to work in America, but regardless of her immigration status, federal labor laws say employers must pay workers what they are owed. And if a worker complains that she isn’t being paid properly, the employer is prohibited from retaliating against the worker.“The Department of Labor can’t allow employers to take advantage of vulnerable workers,” said Stanley E. Keen, Department of Labor regional solicitor who oversaw the case against Scotti D’Abbusco. “The most vulnerable workers now are those who have language or barrier issues.”