Businesses Busted for Labor-Related Charges, Including WC Fraud

Hauppauge, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – The Suffolk County District Attorney has charged nine businesses with various crimes, including failure to pay workers’ compensation premiums, following an investigation into various labor-related crimes.

Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini said the crimes collectively amounted to more than $441,000 of unpaid wages, unemployment insurance premiums and workers’ compensation premiums.  

"Here in Suffolk County, we will not tolerate the exploitation of workers or our taxpayers by greedy corporations and business owners," Sini said in a statement. "That is why my Office, along with our partners, is aggressively identifying and prosecuting bad actors in the business community and holding them accountable. Indeed, not only will our efforts protect workers and taxpayers, they will also prevent these bad businesses from gaining an unfair competitive advantage against legitimate, law-abiding businesses."

The charges come after a months-long investigation into eight individuals and nine businesses, Sini said.

Those charged include:

• Robert Montgomery, 60, of Garden City, and Bob 1232 Jericho Corp., also known as DHCW Inc., (DBA Dix Hills Brushless Car Wash), were charged with first-degree scheme to defraud , first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and discharging into state waters without a permit, a misdemeanor. Dix Hills Brushless Car Wash allegedly paid employees less that minimum wage and did not pay overtime for employees who regularly worked more than 60 hours a week. Prosecutors said the defendants ow more than $180,000 to workers for three years of unpaid wages. Additionally, prosecutors said, the business claimed no employees, resulting in a $29,000 underpayment of unemployment insurance premiums.
• Andrew Woodstock, 57, of Oyster Bay, and Woodstock Construction Group, Inc., were charged with two felonies - first-degree scheme to defraud and willful failure to file a true certified payroll. Prosecutors alleged that from 2016 to 2018 Woodstock Construction was employed by the towns of Babylon and Islip for public works projects, during which employees were underpaid by more than $50,000, classified as lower wage earning employees and not paid overtime.
• Paul Gilistro, 58, of Selden, and Goldstar Installation Services, Inc., were charged with two felonies - first-degree scheme to defraud and deliberately failing to file a true certified payroll, both felonies. Gilistro and his company, misclassified employees as independent contractors, prosecutors allege in order to avoid paying prevailing wage on public works projects. Gilistro regularly falsified payroll records, prosecutors said.
• Nicholas Guercio, 40, of Brightwaters, and Environmental Compliance Associates Corp., also known as "ECAC," were charged with two felony counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. In 2018, ECAC was a public works contractor with the Wading River Fire Department and submitted forged lien releases signed by two subcontractors affirming they were paid, when, in fact, they were actually owed more than $30,000 combined.
• Arsenio Carcamo, 58, of Oceanside, and Answer Construction Corp. were charged with felony  insurance fraud practices. Carcamo did not disclose a previous business when applying for a workers’ compensation policy. That previous business, Multiwork Construction, owed the workers’ compensation fund more than $17,000. He was legally ineligible to take out a new policy until the outstanding balance was paid.
• Tosef Siddiqi, 66, of Westbury, and Allstate Enterprises, were charged with two felony charges of offering a false instrument for filing, and willful failure to file a true certified payroll. Siddiqi and his business submitted forged performance bond to Huntington Union Free School District after winning the bid for a district-wide capital improvement project. Additionally, the company failed to provide accurate payroll records for their time on the job.
• Alan James, 70, of St. James, and APJ Restoration were charged with felony counts of fraudulent insurance practices. Between August 2017 and August 2018, insurance auditors found, James and his company failed to report more than $450,000 in revenue in order to avoid paying an estimated $69,000 in policy premiums.
• Richard Hall, 57, of Northport, and Regal Contracting, were charged with a felony charge of scheme to defraud and a misdemeanor charge of deliberately failing to pay prevailing wages. In addition, Hall and Triangle Enterprises of Long Island, were charged with felony charges of fraudulent insurance practices. In 2018, Hall and Regal Contracting failed to pay $7,400 in benefits to Laborers local 66 Benefit fund for workers on five different projects, Sini said. Later that same year, Regal cancelled its insurance fund policy. Hall then incorporated Triangle Enterprises of Long Island, prosecutors said, and failed to include his ownership of Regal Contracting. Regal owed more than $28,000 in unemployment insurance premiums ad $48,000 in workers’ compensation premiums, making it illegal for Hall to purchase a new policy.

"The Governor and the Department of Labor take the responsibility of enforcing labor and worker protections very seriously," Roberta Reardon, New York State Department of Labor commissioner, said in a statement. "We have zero tolerance for those businesses who seek to defraud the system. Businesses who don't play by the rules will be held accountable. We are fortunate to have law enforcement partners like the Suffolk County DA's office to help us reinforce those protections."

Sini said investigations into labor-related crimes are ongoing.

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