The clan behind the failed Criniti’s chain of flashy Italian restaurants is being torn apart amid claims its founder has been violent and intimidating towards other family members.
Frank Criniti is the subject of five apprehended violence order applications by police to protect relatives including his former wife Rima, younger brother Dominic and Dominic’s wife Lourdes.
The 40-year-old has already pleaded guilty to assaulting Rima and been accused of breaching the interim AVO protecting Lourdes.
Rima, 40, Dominic, 38, and Lourdes, 34, have all been heavily involved in the Criniti Group which includes the Frankie’s Food Factory cafes.
The allegations against Frank come as Criniti’s restaurants in two states have been closed and new investors are being sought to take over what is left of the chain.
Frank faced Parramatta Local Court on Monday when his lawyer explained all his client’s alleged criminal behaviour related to the collapse of the Criniti’s empire.
‘They are related offending,’ solicitor Paul Crean said. ‘They’re all involving family members since the demise of the family business.
The clan behind the failed Criniti’s chain of flashy Italian restaurants is being torn apart by a series of apprehended violence order applications taken out by police to protect family members of its founder, Frank Criniti. The 40-year-old (pictured) is the subject of five AVOs
Police have applied for apprehended violence orders to protect Dominic and Lourdes Criniti (both pictured) from Dominic’s brother Frank Criniti. Dominic and his then sister-in-law Rima were the public faces of Criniti’s in its halcyon days, staging lavish opening parties
Frank and Rima Criniti (pictured) founded the first Criniti’s restaurant at Parramatta in 2003 when they were both just 23. The couple later divorced. Police have successfully applied for an AVO to protect Rima from Frank, who has pleaded guilty to assaulting her
‘They had a family business together and it relates to, in essence, the downturn in that business.’
Mr Crean described Frank as someone who had no previous criminal convictions before allegedly ‘committing a number of offences in a short period of time.’
Frank has previously pleaded guilty to one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, while still facing another, and there are interim AVOs to protect two other relatives.
Rima, who launched the first Criniti’s with her then husband Frank in Sydney in 2003, has described the eating empire’s failure as preventable.
She did not wish to discuss the AVO or assault by her ex-husband when contacted by Daily Mail Australia. Frank also declined to comment on Monday.
Rima and her then brother-in-law Dominic were the public faces of Criniti’s in its heyday, while the now heavilly-tattooed Frank remained largely in the background.
Frank Criniti (pictured) has pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and is yet to enter a plea for another. His solicitor told Parramatta Local Court all matters will be the subject of an application to have them dealt with under the Mental Health (Forensic Procedures) Act
The heavily-tattooed Frank Criniti has kept a low public profile despite the onetime success of the Criniti’s restaurant chain. TV presenter Erin Molan is pictured with Italian soccer star Fabio Cannavaro (middle) and Frank’s brother Dominic Criniti
Dominic was photographed in Criniti’s restaurants with Italian soccer stars Alessandro Del Piero – during his stint playing with Sydney FC – and World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro.
His Linkedin profile still lists him as general manager at the Criniti Group, while his wife Lourdes says on social media she works at Frankie’s Food Factory.
Frank and Dominic joined forces in 2012 to write a book called Southern Italian Home Cooking which was described as ‘a celebration of family’.
Four members of that family will now face off against Frank if their AVO applications are heard. A two-year AVO protecting Rima was confirmed on Monday.
Criniti’s, famous for its two and three metre long pizzas, once boasted 13 eateries across Australia before it was put in the hands of administrators late last year.
At the Woolloomooloo Wharf celebrity hangout two Ducati motorcycles were hung from the ceiling and diners were chauffeured in a Rolls Royce Phantom to the door.
Italian motorcycles and sports car adorn Criniti’s restaurants. The chain once provided a Rolls Royce Phantom to ferry diners to and from its Woolloomooloo Wharf eatery
Frank Criniti has pleaded guilty to assaulting his ex-wife Rima (pictured) at Castle Hill on December 29. Frank kicked Rima in the leg after warning her, ‘Shut your mouth, I’m going to smack you across the head,’ during a confrontation at the Castle Towers shopping centre
While eight of the Criniti’s outlets are still trading the entrepreneurial world of its founder has unravelled and the family company’s halcyon days are over.
Frank, whose parents immigrated from Italy in the 1960s, was disqualified from managing companies for five years in 2018 due to his involvement in seven other failed businesses.
A year earlier he told the New South Wales Supreme Court some of his financial backers had used Comanchero bikies to threaten to shoot up his restaurants.
Criniti’s went into voluntary administration in November when five of its restaurants were closed and scores of staff sacked without notice.
Last year police took out an AVO to protect Rima and charged Frank with assaulting her at Castle Hill on the afternoon of December 29. He pleaded guilty to the assault on Monday.
Frank Criniti (pictured) declined to comment to Daily Mail Australia when approached outside Parramatta Local Court on Monday morning. He is facing five charges and is the subject of five AVO applications brought by police on behalf of family members
Criniti’s ‘specialises’ in wood fired pizza, fresh pasta, steaks and ribs, seafood, desserts and pastries. Critics have claimed its menu is overloaded. A Criniti’s pizza is pictured
Frank was described in court papers as the operator of a cafe at The Big Flower nursery at Glenhaven, a semi-rural Sydney suburb where he once lived in a $9million mansion with his wife and their three children.
A statement of facts tendered to the court revealed Frank kicked his ex-wife in the leg when they met at the Castle Towers shopping centre after he warned her, ‘Shut your mouth, I’m going to smack you across the head.’
‘The accused raised his leg and made a sweeping motion and kicked the victim to the right leg, just above her knee, causing her immediate pain to the region,’ the statement said.
That matter was stood over to March to join other cases against Frank, who will seek to have them all dealt with under Section 32 of the Mental Health (Forensic Provisions) Act rather than the criminal law.
Mr Crean told magistrate Tim Keady: ‘There’s significant mental health issues with Mr Criniti.’
On February 13 Frank faced a Burwood magistrate when police applied for an AVO to protect his sister-in-law Lourdes.
Frank was subsequently arrested and charged with contravening that order. He was granted bail on conditions he not assault or threaten, stalk, harass or intimidate, or damage any property belonging to her.
The original Criniti’s restaurant in Church Street, Parramatta which opened 2003 is still trading. It is pictured before lunch on Monday
Italian soccer star Alessandro Del Piero (right) signs his autograph for Dominic Criniti. Del Piero played for Turin-based Juventus from 1993 to 2012 and Sydney FC from 2012 to 2014
Last Wednesday Frank was back in court again, this time at the Downing Centre where police applied for an AVO to protect his brother Dominic.
He is also awaiting sentence for driving his white Audi SQ7 at Northmead on November 25 while his licence was suspended.
Frank, Rima and Dominic are currently parties to several civil actions involving Criniti Group companies being heard in the equity division of the NSW Supreme Court.
The first Crinti’s was opened by Frank and Rima in Church Street, Parramatta, 17 years ago when they were both just 23.
The original restaurant proved hugely popular and six years later the couple launched a venue at Darling Harbour which was also an immediate hit and became the company’s flagship.
At its peak there were nine Criniti’s restaurants in New South Wales, two in Victoria and one each in Queensland and Western Australia.
Rima quit Criniti’s in 2009 to raise the couple’s children and start a fashion business, leaving Frank and other members of the family in charge of the restaurants.
In early 2011 the Crinitis paid $5.6million for a six-bedroom mansion called Petalinda at Glenhaven in Sydney’s Hills district which they sold in late 2014 for $9million.
Frank and Rima Criniti paid $5.6million for a six-bedroom mansion called Petalinda (pictured) at Glenhaven in Sydney’s Hills district which they sold in late 2014 for $9million
Petalinda boasts a 14-person sauna, championship-size tennis court, gymnasium and cellar (pictured). Its $9million sale in 2014 was a record for Sydney’s Hills district
The six-bedroom mansion in Glenhaven’s Gilmour Close has a security system which uses fingerprint scanning technology and a 23 metre indoor pool (pictured)
The couple divorced but briefly reconciled in 2017. Rima, who has claimed Criniti’s expanded too quickly and was poorly managed in later years, has had nothing to do with the business since then.
Criniti’s ‘specialises’ in wood fired pizza, fresh pasta, steaks and ribs, seafood, desserts and pastries. Critics have claimed its menu is overloaded.
Shortly after the Woolloomooloo restaurant opened a reviewer noted sashimi on the menu, along with dozens of pastas, pizzas, meat dishes, salads and risottos.
‘At Criniti’s, it seems there’s such an urge to have all possible menu options covered that several hundred Italian dishes are apparently not enough,’ she wrote.
The Criniti Group was put in voluntary administration last year in a collapse Rima blamed in part on accumulated debt and the chain’s rapid expansion.
‘While I left the business almost a decade ago, I have continued to dine at Criniti’s with my children, and have always loved the food and the experience,’ she told Daily Mail Australia in November.
‘However, it takes more than fantastic food and hospitality to make a restaurant group a success.’
Customers have left unflattering online reviews of Criniti’s food. One diner wrote of this carbonara: ‘The bacon in the carbonara had more fat than a sumo wrestler, and – after spending several minutes fishing out the awful, undercooked meat – I can confidently say the dish was THE worst carbonara I’ve ever, ever tasted – and believe me, I’ve sampled many’
‘It also requires smart management. There are very high costs involved in the hospitality industry, and if this is met with poor business decisions, then the business, its staff, and customers, will all suffer – as we now see with Criniti’s.’
After the failure of the chain was announced customers turned to social media to complain prices had continued to go up while the quality of food and service had gone down.
The directors of Criniti Restaurant Group, which comprises 38 companies involved in operating the restaurants, appointed Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants.
Outlets in Manly, Kirrawee and Wollongong in New South Wales, Cannington in Perth and Chermside in Brisbane were shut.
Restaurants in Parramatta, Wetherill Park, Castle Hill, Darling Harbour and Woolloomooloo in Sydney, as well as Kotara in Newcastle and Southbank and Carlton in Melbourne remain open.
The Criniti’s administrator has said the restaurant chain is ‘famed for raising the bar with respect to interior fit-outs’ (pictured). Some customers call the decor tacky
Criniti’s created a four-minute video promoting the grand opening of their new outlet in Manly, on Sydney’s northern beaches, in June 2013. The Manly restaurant is pictured
Criniti’s administrator Graeme Beattie has said high overheads and low consumer spending had contributed to the financial distress of the ‘well-known, well-liked’ restaurant chain.
‘There is some magic in the Criniti’s name, with the early locations in particular achieving near-iconic status in the minds of many Australians,’ Mr Beattie said in November.
‘The level of brand recognition and affinity is extraordinary for a small business of this size and we’re confident that shrewd investors will want to take the name forward.’
Mr Beattie said it was still not clear exactly what led to Criniti’s downfall.
‘At this early stage, we’ve yet to fully discern all of the factors leading to Criniti’s financial problems,’ he said.
‘Third-party commentary about these factors or the performance of current management, whether from arms’ length critics or people previously associated with the company, should be regarded as speculation or uninformed opinion.’
Frank was previously disqualified from managing companies when the Australian Securities and Investments Commission found he had used his position to gain advantage for himself and others and provided false information to authorities.
He also acted as a de facto director while not appointed as a director and failed to pay $3.5million in taxes.
What the administrator says about the collapsed Criniti’s Italian chain
The Criniti’s administrators have been taking offers for the fit-outs of closed outlets
This is the full statement Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants made about Criniti’s on November 27:
The Administrators of the companies comprising the well-known restaurant group are preparing a leaner and hungrier Criniti’s for sale as a going concern, with the hunt for a new owner likely to commence next week.
Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants NSW & ACT partner Mr Graeme Beattie said:
‘There is some magic in the Criniti’s name, with the early locations in particular achieving near-iconic status in the minds of many Australians. The level of brand recognition and affinity is extraordinary for a small business of this size and we’re confident that shrewd investors will want to take the name forward.
‘For the last week it has been business as usual for the majority of Criniti’s Italian restaurants, which we expect to trade strongly through the Christmas and New Year period.’
Very soon after their appointment by Criniti Group directors on 18 November 2019, the Worrells team made the difficult but necessary decision to immediately close 5 of the 13 restaurants: Manly, Wollongong and Kirrawee in Sydney, Chermside in Brisbane and Cannington in Perth.
‘Criniti’s is famed for raising the bar with respect to interior fit-outs. From Monday 25 November we’ve been taking offers for plant and equipment from those locations unable to maintain ordinary operations,’ said Mr Beattie.
‘The slimmed-down Crinitis is refocussed on its Sydney roots. At the original restaurant in Parramatta and the flagship Darling Harbour location, trade has remained seasonally brisk throughout this difficult week. Woolloomooloo, Wetherill Park and Castle Hill are open and performing to plan, while Kotara in Newcastle and the popular Southbank and Carlton locations in Melbourne are doing well too.
‘The ability to rapidly streamline Criniti’s and put it on the path to sustainability speaks to the variability across our fragile retail economy,’ said Mr Beattie.
‘A streamlined, re-focussed Criniti’s will be well-placed to trade profitably throughout the peak hospitality season, so we may run competing processes to maximise returns to creditors; outright sale of the business as a going concern, and negotiation of a Deed of Company Arrangement.’
In response to questions about the cause of Criniti’s financial distress, Mr Beattie said: ‘At this early stage, we’ve yet to fully discern all of the factors leading to Criniti’s financial problems. Third-party commentary about these factors or the performance of current management, whether from arms’ length critics or people previously associated with the company, should be regarded as speculation or uninformed opinion.’