Brooklyn construction company steals over $700,000 from workers

November 15, 2017 By Paul Frangipane Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Contractor Michael Riglietti and his company MSR Electrical Construction Company pleaded guilty to grand larceny in Brooklyn Supreme Court for stealing from employees. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

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A Red Hook-based construction company pleaded guilty to grand larceny Wednesday for stealing more than $700,000 from its workers, paid for by government agencies.

Contractor Michael Riglietti, 50, represented MSR Electrical Construction Company in Brooklyn Supreme Court, securing a five-year probation plea deal and an ordered forfeiture of $2.5 million.

The previously 31 Bay St.-based business copped to underpaying five employees after being granted 15 public works contracts between December 2012 and December 2015.

“These defendants got lucrative public works contracts and then shamefully stole money from their own employees,” DA-Elect Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “In Brooklyn, we will not allow hard-earned wages to be stolen from hardworking employees.”

After receiving contracts from the New York City School Construction Authority (NYCSCA), MTA and the state Office of General Services (OGS), the company was required to pay its workers $54 an hour, plus benefits.

While the company submitted the workers were paid as much, the employees actually got paid on average between $13.50 to $25 per hour without overtime or required benefits.

The contracts were for four Brooklyn schools, a psychiatric center in Queens and five MTA locations in Manhattan and Queens. Of the schools were P.S. 164 and 767 in Borough Park and P.S. 297 and I.S. 49 in Williamsburg.

The company will also be debarred from public works contracts for five years after the sentencing, which is slated for March 28, 2018.

“This Brooklyn company and its owner won public contracts but their criminal conduct makes them no better than common swindlers stealing wages from their workers,” NYC Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters said in a statement. “These guilty pleas will mean this company and its owner are disqualified from doing school construction business.”

The $700,000 amount will be distributed back to the five employees with $500,000 plus penalties going to the defrauded state agencies.

Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun kept Riglietti out on $25,000 bail.