U.S. News
The Owner of an Iconic LA Burger Counter Stole the COVID Money That Was Supposed to Save It
By Mike Harper · June 1, 2026
Irv’s Burgers has been a West Hollywood institution since 1946. It survived eight decades of recessions, earthquakes, and the slow death of the American diner. When COVID shut down Los Angeles in 2020, the federal government created emergency relief programs specifically to keep places like Irv’s Burgers alive — to cover payroll, rent, and the basic costs of keeping a beloved local institution tethered to the other side of the pandemic.
Philip Frederick Camino took that money and kept it.
On Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced Camino to 41 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $4,365,667 in restitution for stealing more than $4 million in COVID-19 emergency relief loans. Camino, who operated restaurants and hotels across Los Angeles and two other states, had pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The case was investigated jointly by Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, and IRS Criminal Investigation — three agencies whose involvement together typically signals a fraud operation that crossed multiple financial and jurisdictional lines. The investigation found that Camino obtained COVID relief loans through the Paycheck Protection Program and other pandemic assistance funds by filing fraudulent applications, then diverted the money for personal use rather than covering the employee wages and business expenses the programs required.
The PPP was designed with intentionally low barriers to entry — Congress wanted money moving quickly to small businesses that needed it. That design choice, which saved millions of legitimate businesses, also created an opening for operators like Camino to collect funds they had no intention of using correctly. The Justice Department has now prosecuted hundreds of COVID fraud cases. Camino’s $4.36 million restitution order puts him in the larger tier of those cases — not the largest, but well above the typical small-scale fraud that characterized most pandemic loan abuse.
Irv’s Burgers is named for founder Irv Gendis, who opened the counter in 1946 and turned it into one of the most photographed and written-about burger spots in Los Angeles. The walls were famously covered in photos of celebrities, politicians, and regulars who lined up for the simple menu. Its cultural footprint is larger than its square footage.
The employees who worked through COVID — the ones the relief money was supposed to protect — did not have the option of diverting funds meant for their paychecks. They showed up. The money that was supposed to be behind them wasn’t used for that purpose.
Camino will report to federal custody after his sentencing. The restitution will be repaid to the Small Business Administration, which administered the loans. It will not go to the employees or to the business.