A Maspeth-based metalwork fabricator will have to pay about $6.25 million in wages it illegally withheld from 499 workers in a plea deal with city and state agencies.
An investigation executed by the state Department of Labor and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Construction Fraud Task Force found that AGL Industries pilfered overtime pay and wages and reported fraudulent financial information to the state. When workers confronted the company about underpayment, company told them there was nothing they could do.
“We have absolutely zero tolerance for any business that exploits workers and robs employees of hard-earned wages – period,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
The company pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny. It will have to play the money back over the course of a five-year plan. AGL’s CEO Dominic Lofaso, also pleaded guilty to a Class D felony for Grand Larceny.
The plea deal represents the largest sum of money that the Department of Labor has ever collected, claimed Cuomo’s press office.
In March 2017, plaintiff Brian Jimenez brought a class action lawsuit against AGL and Lofaso. The lawsuit alleged that Jimenez worked approximately 84 hours per week at the steel fabrication company from January 2016 until in or around March 2017, but was denied any overtime pay during that period.
