02/13/2017
By: Jonathon Sizemore
A contractor and a developer are to pay $255,000 for violating the New York False Claims Act and not paying workers a prevailing wage. On February 9, 2017, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a settlement agreement with a New York City-based general contractor and a developer for failing to pay a prevailing wage to workers at their public works project.
The contractor, A. Aleem Construction Inc., and the developer, West 131st Street Development Corp., were both participants in the Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program of the Department of Housing Preservations and Development. The program was intended to enable neighborhood-based private property managers to own and manage clusters of occupied and vacant city-owned buildings. Buildings selected for the program are sold to the Neighborhood Partnership Housing Development Fund Corporation and then leased to the participants. The participants then oversee the rehabilitation and design of the buildings with general contractors. The program is partially funded with federal money.