More than two dozen construction workers were defrauded out of an estimated $95,000 in wages.
By Brendan Krisel, Patch National Staff
Apr 5, 2018 11:58 am ET
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY – Two construction company executives pleaded guilty to defrauding workers out of wages for a Midtown construction job, New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., announced Thursday.
Nikitas Nikolis, of Queens, and Anthony Caggiano, of Long Island, will be forced to pay restitution to workers hired by City Metro Corp between June 2015 and April 2017, prosecutors said. Nikolis, 61, and Caggiano, 54, pleaded guilty to first-degree scheme to defraud on Thursday, prosecutors said.
Between June 2015 and April 2017 Nikolis and Caggiano stole an estimated $95,000 from more than two dozen workers hired by City Metro Corp for a Midtown Manhattan construction job, prosecutors said. The two construction executives would divert proceeds from the job, intentionally failing to keep the workers’ wages in reserve, prosecutors said. As a result, some workers were paid only a portion of their earned wages and some workers weren’t paid at all, prosecutors said.
The workers were hired by City Metro Corp to perform a concrete installation project at a Midtown hotel under construction, prosecutors said.
“Whether it’s withholding overtime, misclassifying workers, or not paying them outright, wage theft is a crime that will be prosecuted aggressively in Manhattan,” District Attorney Vance said in a statement. “While wage theft is intolerable in any industry, it is particularly egregious in cases like these, where laborers who put their physical safety on the line are not even paid for their work.”