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Navillus Construction Executives Convicted of Embezzling from Union Benefits Funds

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of New York
Friday, October 22, 2021

Defendants Engaged in Years-Long Fraud Scheme Designed to Evade Making Required Contributions for Their Employees

Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, a jury returned guilty verdicts against Donal O’Sullivan, the founder, owner and President of Navillus Tile, Inc. d/b/a/ Navillus Contracting (“Navillus”), one of New York City’s largest construction firms, Padraig Naughton, Navillus’s Financial Controller, and Helen O’Sullivan, a Payroll Administrator, on all 11 counts charging wire fraud, mail fraud, embezzlement from employee benefits funds, submission of false remittance reports to union benefits funds, and conspiracy to commit those crimes.   The verdicts followed a three-week trial before United States District Judge Pamela K. Chen.  When sentenced, each of the defendants faces up to 20 years in prison.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced the verdict.

“As found by the jury, the defendants deliberately devised a fraudulent scheme to avoid making required contributions to union benefits funds on behalf of Navillus’s workers, in order to deprive the workers of benefits they had earned and deserved,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “This Office and its law enforcement partners will continue to investigate and prosecute these types of blatant frauds that are harmful to workers.”

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Subcontractor charged with dumping pollutants into Susquehanna River, cheating workers

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Hope Stephan
on July 28, 2016 at 10:28 AM

A subcontractor hired for rehabilitation work on the George Wade Bridge in 2009 has been charged with embezzling $400,000 from union benefit and workers’ pension plans related to the work and with dumping pollutants into the river during the project.

Andrew Manganas, 59, and Panthera Painting of Canonsburg were indicted by a federal grand jury in Harrisburg on charges of embezzlement, fraud, false statements and environmental charges under the Clean Water Act related to to overall $42 million project on the bridge that carries Interstate 81 over the Susquehanna River between Cumberland and Dauphin counties.

…

Panthera was subcontracted for $9,875,000 worth of that work, to blast, resurface and paint the structural steel of the bridge.

Federal oversight required each contractor and subcontractor to submit certified payroll reports for every worker and pay period to certify the federal prevailing wage was being paid.

Manganas and Panthera are accused of engaging in a “side payroll” scheme, U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith said in a press release. Workers received two checks – one for regular hours and a separate “per diem” check. The “per diem” check was for overtime hours worked and did not include required contributions to the workers’ union welfare benefit and individual employees’ pension plans.

The total taken through the scheme, Smith said, came to $400,000 between 2011 and 2013.

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