The owner of Connor’s Pub in Broad Ripple has been charged with 10 counts related to tax evasion, along with soliciting sex from one of his employees. These charges are the result of what local law-enforcement officials called a multi-agency effort to combat corrupt business practices in Indianapolis.
John Yaggi, 63, faces four counts of failure to remit taxes held in a trust, four counts of failure to remit food and beverage tax, and failure to keep records open for examination for his alleged role in failing to report accurate sales figures to the state.
He’s also charged with making an unlawful proposition after allegations emerged during the tax investigation that he solicited sexual acts in exchange for giving an employee better-paying shifts.
“In this case, one of the allegations is that the bar didn’t even keep records, and one of the things the law requires is that you have to maintain records on what you’re spending your money on,” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears told IndyStar. “The Department of Revenue had to recreate what they think is being spent on goods and services to determine how much taxes were evaded.”
Where there’s a lot of attention being paid to guns and crime, Mears said, people are also being harmed and cheated because of bad business practices. Tax revenue goes to the state, and Mears said that supports various programs that benefit the community.
“When people don’t pay their fair share, it’s not a level playing field, and it could be representative of other unlawful things going on,” Mears said.
IndyStar was not immediately able to reach Yaggi for a response.
Employees say they were paid off the books
In July 2023, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office Grand Jury Division, along with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Indiana State Police, Indiana State Excise Police, and the Indiana Department of Revenue, began investigating the business practices of bars operating in Broad Ripple Village.
During the investigation, they reached out to Conner’s Pub employees for interviews.
One former employee who had been working at the pub from 2010 to 2020 said she was paid an hourly rate of about $2.13. After working four hours per shift for about 20 hours a week, she was paid in cash after every shift. She said she was never issued a pay stub or W-2.
Another former employee told investigators she made $10 an hour as a bartender and a cook. She was mainly paid under the table at first, before, according to court records, Yaggi briefly put her on payroll in 2021. So, she received her hourly wages on her paycheck. At some point, she didn’t think she was receiving the correct amount in wages, so she switched back to being paid under the table.
She took orders on a piece of paper and hung it up in the kitchen. The woman told investigators the bar tried to have a point-of-sale system (POS), but it didn’t work. Everyone cashed out their tables, but Yaggi normally handled the cash drawer. It was a cash register, but it didn’t open, and didn’t have a top to the register. She estimated that the bar would have between 200-300 customers per day.
Another former bartender said the bar did not use a traditional POS system, and employees wrote orders down on pieces of paper and kept tallies of drinks. The employees would then tell the customers how much their bill was, but there was no printout to provide customers.
Marion County Prosecutor’s Office investigator Carmen Walker cites six former employees he spoke with in the probable cause affidavit for Yaggi’s arrest, one of whom spoke about a sexual relationship she had with the pub owner.
Sexual relationship between pub owner and employee alleged
On April 21, 2025, an employee told Walker she had a sexual relationship with Yaggi. She said she had intercourse with him at least five times, and at least 10 times she performed oral sex on him in exchange for bartending shifts. She was hired as a cook, but made more money at the bar.
All five sexual encounters happened at the owner’s home, the employee said.
Also, if she had to exchange kegs or liquor in the basement of Connor’s Pub, sometimes Yaggi was waiting on her with his pants down, according to court documents. The employee called Yaggi “A very sexualized man” who was obsessed with her. She also found out that Yaggi asked her sister, who also worked in the pub, to send him pictures of her breasts.
Investigators calculate nearly $4.5 million in underreported sales
According to court records, investigators uncovered that Yaggi had failed to keep basic financial records for several years. Investigators used the records that Yaggi did keep to calculate the bar’s total expected sales.
They concluded that Connor’s Pub underreported sales by nearly $4.5 million and failed to remit nearly $320,000 in sales tax and nearly $91,000 in Food and Beverage Tax from January 2019 to December 2023.
Yaggi was not immediately arrested in this case, but Mears said he will receive a summons to appear in court.
Jade Jackson is a Public Safety Reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON. IndyStar reporter Jake Allen contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis bar owner evaded taxes, solicited sex from staff, court docs claim