Tri-Built Construction Admits Fraud

NEW YORK -November 21, 2007 - An Ardsley contractor faces up to five years in prison after admitting yesterday that he defrauded a carpenters union of millions of dollars by bribing union officials, using non-union workers at union job sites, and paying union carpenters off the books.
Patrick Noel McCaul, 48, of Winding Farm Road, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to one count of conspiracy. His partner in Tri-Built Construction Co., James Dermot McGonnell also pleaded guilty.
The two admitted they engaged in a decade-long plot to defraud the District Council of New York City and Vicinity of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of millions of dollars. Tri-Built was a drywall contractor that held itself out as a union contractor and did business in New York City and Long Island. The company had contracts on numerous publicly funded projects, including a construction site at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn.
When they were indicted in December, federal prosecutors said the two men illegally skimmed $6.5 million in benefits that should have gone to the union.
McCaul and McGonnell were able to underbid other companies for jobs because they knew they would pay workers cash at non-union rates without any benefits or tax withholding, federal prosecutors said. They admitted paying an employee of the union benefits fund to destroy internal records which might show the fraud if the books were ever audited.
As part of their plea, the two men agreed to forfeit $1.5 million which will be paid to the benefit fund, federal authorities said.