A Northport contracting company has pleaded guilty to several labor-related charges, District Attorney Tim Sini said Friday.
Richard Hall, 58, of Northport, pleaded guilty Thursday to disorderly conduct and was sentenced by Suffolk County Court Judge Stephen Braslow to a conditional discharge. His company, Regal Contracting, Inc., pleaded guilty to scheme to defraud in the first degree, a class E felony, and was fined $10,000. Hall and Regal Contracting, Inc., were required to pay restitution in the amount of $7,406.64 to Laborers Local 66; $28,935.18 to the New York State Department of Labor and $48,853 to the New York State Insurance Fund.
“Let this be a lesson to anyone doing business in Suffolk County: if you are not paying your fair share to your workers, or to the programs and agencies that make sure workers are safe and protected, we will be coming for you,” Sini said.
An investigation by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, NYS DOL, NYSIF and the Suffolk County Police Department revealed evidence that in the summer of 2018, Hall and Regal Contracting, Inc., failed to pay $7,404.64 in benefits to the Laborers Local 66 Benefit Fund for multiple workers on five different projects.
The investigation also revealed that Regal Contracting owed more than $28,000 in unpaid Unemployment Insurance Fund contributions to the NYS DOL and owed more than $48,000 in unpaid workers’ compensation premiums to the NYSIF, therefore making Hall ineligible to take out any new policies. Hall then incorporated a new company, Triangle Enterprises of Long Island, Inc., and fraudulently omitted his ownership of the company in order to obtain a new workers’ compensation insurance policy.