MAY 20, 2016
BY CHRISTOPHER BOYLE
(Long Island, NY) Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced that New Paltz-based construction company Lalo Drywall, Inc. and its owner Sergio Raymundo, 28, were sentenced in Manhattan Supreme Court after a conviction related to wage theft for underpaying workers at a mixed-use, commercial, and low-income residential project in Harlem.
Raymundo and Lalo Drywall, Inc. admitted to cheating eight workers at a Harlem housing project out of approximately $800,000 in wages during a 17-month period. The defendants attempted to conceal the underpayments by signing false checks drawn on the company’s account indicating that employees on the job were paid properly under the law. However, those checks were never actually given to the workers.
“Wage theft is a crime – one that frequently involves companies exploiting low and middle income workers for their own gain,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “My office will continue to aggressively prosecute those who commit wage theft and ensure that workers received the compensation they have earned.”