A Glen Head resident, and his paving and masonry company have been charged in what’s been described as a prevailing wage kickback scheme, officials said Tuesday.
Angelo Stanco and his company, Glen Cove-based American Paving & Masonry Corp., face grand larceny, failure to pay the prevailing wage, and forgery charges for allegedly demanding that employees kick-back restitution checks from the State Department of Labor, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
The checks, totaling more than $42,000, was money that employees were entitled to because the company had not paid the prevailing wage on public work projects in Brookville and Sands Point, Nassau DA Anne Donnelly said.
Stanco, who pleaded not guilty, was released on his own recognizance. The corporation also pleaded not guilty.
“A prevailing wage ensures that employees on public work sites in our state are compensated fairly and appropriately for their hard work,” Donnelly said in a statement.
“This defendant and his company allegedly failed to abide by the law, underpaying employees their rightful wages, and then doubled down on this unlawful behavior by demanding kickbacks, threatening employees with termination if they did not comply, or stealing restitution checks outright. Some of the defendant’s employees were not aware they were due thousands of dollars in wages,” she added.
Vito Palmieri, Stanco’s attorney, told Newsday that his firm is “fully complying with the district attorney’s office to provide the background record.” He said that the 40-year-old company is a “good employer,” with staff members who have worked there for 25 years. “I believe what they’re going to find is there’s one or two disgruntled people who look to cause trouble,” Palmieri added.
Officials say that the DOL had issued 25 restitution checks for the underpayments and interest to 22 employees on Dec. 7, 2018. Stanco and American provided the employees’ address information to the DOL allowing the agency to mail the checks directly to the underpaid employees.
But between Dec. 13, 2018, and Jan. 3, 2019, Stanco allegedly demanded that several employees kick-back the DOL checks to Stanco and American as a condition of their future employment. Other employees allegedly never received their DOL restitution checks because they were mailed to places allegedly controlled by Stanco and American, including a U.S. Post Office Box and a Mail Store Box. Many of the kicked-back checks were allegedly fraudulently endorsed by the defendant or double-endorsed with the defendant’s name and deposited into accounts controlled by the defendant.
Seven employees were allegedly impacted, the DA’s office said.
Under the new provisions of the law, any employer who does not pay the proper minimum wage, overtime rate or promised wage, can be charged with a crime, and depending upon the amount of the wage theft, face a potential jail sentence of up to 25 years. The statute also permits prosecutors to aggregate the total amount of wages stolen from the entire workforce to determine the class of larceny to charge – from petit larceny for under $1,000 to a Class B felony for wage theft in excess of $1 million.
“This law is a great tool in the battle against wage theft and labor trafficking,” Donnelly said. “This is a tremendous win for Nassau County workers who are often underpaid, or even unpaid, by unscrupulous employers. Any worker in Nassau who believes they have been a victim of wage theft is encouraged to call our complaint and wage hotline at 516-571-2149.”
The defendants are due back in court on Oct. 11. If convicted, Stanco faces up to 2-1/3 years to 7 years in prison, as well as a five-year prohibition from bidding upon or working on public work contracts under the felony debarment provision in the New York State Labor Law.
