Officials of Building Firm Accused of Cheating Workers and City

By JOHN ELIGON

Two officials of a construction company that did work for the city were charged on Wednesday with cheating workers out of more than half a million dollars and inflating payroll figures to bilk money from the city.

The officials, Yuly Aronson, owner of the May Construction Company, and Anthony Branca, the company’s accountant, ran their scheme from April 2005 through November 2006 during work on two dozen city buildings and courthouses, according to Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.

They were charged in Manhattan Criminal Court with falsifying payroll filings to receive roughly $2 million from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services for employee wages and withholdings, of which Mr. Aronson, 46, and Mr. Branca, 50, ended up pocketing about $550,000 that was supposed to go toward the salaries of 84 workers, the attorney general said.

In some cases, Mr. Aronson, of Norwalk, Conn., and Mr. Branca of Bedford Hills, N.Y., submitted forms to the city reporting that they had paid their workers $42 and $70 per hour. But the workers had received only $28 per hour, according to the city’s Department of Investigation, which worked on the case.

The case underscores the efforts of Mr. Cuomo’s office and the State Department of Labor to rein in unfair wage practices. Last week, the attorney general’s office helped negotiate a settlement that secured $1.2 million in back pay for 284 construction workers who worked on projects in the Bronx and did not get the overtime they had earned.

“Contractors on public works projects should be warned: Obey the law and pay the prevailing wage, or face the consequences,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement.

Mr. Aronson and Mr. Branca face several charges including grand larceny. If convicted, they could spend up to 15 years in prison.

Lawyers for Mr. Aronson and Mr. Branca did not return calls seeking comment. They were freed on $25,000 bail each on Wednesday afternoon.

Under New York City law, construction contractors working on public projects must pay workers a prevailing wage set by the city. The prevailing wage varies depending on the job and ranges from $28.05 to $70.62 per hour.

May Construction lured many of its employees with an advertisement in the Polish-language newspaper Nowy Dziennik, according to the attorney general’s office. Most of the company’s workers were secured through those advertisements and were each paid the minimum of the prevailing wage, even though the jobs they were doing required they be paid higher wages, the attorney general’s office said.

The construction projects included work on Staten Island Borough Hall; providing central air conditioning to parts of Staten Island Criminal Court; renovating parking lots for the Queens Borough Hall; removing carpet and installing floor tiles at 60 Centre Street, a State Supreme Court building in Manhattan; and installing doors at 100 Centre Street, the courthouse where Mr. Aronson and Mr. Branca were arraigned.

The city began investigating May Construction after the Department of Citywide Administrative Services noticed a discrepancy in paperwork filed by the company.

This is not the first time May Construction has been scrutinized. In November 2006, the Urban Group Ltd., a carpentry subcontractor, filed a lawsuit against the company and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, alleging it was owed $611,805.91 for work it had done.

Last October, Mr. Aronson sued Mr. Branca, alleging he had defrauded and embezzled money and property from him, according to court records. The case is still pending.