Contractor Arrested, Accused of Failing to Pay Workers

A contractor doing work for the Huntington school district was arrested Wednesday on charges of failing to pay full wages to his employees.

Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini announced the arrest of Young Jae Kim, 67, of Queens. He and his company, Tri-State Construction are charged with offering a false instrument for filing, and willful failure to pay the minimum rate of wage, both class E felonies.

Sini said he failed to pay about $104,000 in wages to 11 people for work on a school capital project.

“People deserve to be paid for the work they do; it’s that simple,”  Sini said. “Not only were these defendants allegedly shortchanging their employees, but they were doing so on the public’s payroll. This is unacceptable. I thank the members of my office’s Financial Investigations & Money Laundering Bureau for continuing to investigate and prosecute labor crimes like these and to make sure Suffolk County workers are being paid their fair share.”

 The defendants were employed from June 29, 2018 to Aug.11, 2018, Sini said, the the defendants allegedly submitted certified payrolls to the school district that indicated a failure to pay workers any supplement benefits and overtime as required for working more than 40 hours in a workweek. 

The defendants also allegedly filed false NYS-45 quarterly wage reporting forms to the New York State Department of Labor, underreporting wages to avoid paying Unemployment Insurance Fund contributions.

Kim surrendered to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office Wednesday and was given a desk appearance ticket. He will be arraigned on Sept. 8.

If convicted of the top count, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of one and one-third to four years in prison.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Shaun McCready, of the Financial Investigations & Money Laundering Bureau.

Dix Hills Lawyer, 3 Others Accused of Fraud in Lottery Winners’ Case

Leave a Reply