Two contractors robbed workers of hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages through kickbacks, forgery and wage theft as they renovated a playground in The Bronx, officials say.
It took years for the city comptroller’s office and the Parks Department to claw back the money after an audit found that 24 workers on the Hunts Point Playground redevelopment hadn’t been paid the prevailing wage.
The two companies and the prime contractor of the project agreed to jointly pay $618,495.40 in back pay and civil penalties as part of a settlement announced Thursday.
“At a time when the federal government is rolling back labor protections, the work of our Bureau of Labor Law is that much more important,” Comptroller Mark Levine said.
A joint investigation by the comptroller’s office and the Parks Department found that the two companies, Green Builders Group of NY Corp. and Amin Electrical Corp., failed to pay workers the prevailing wage, forged their signatures on affidavits, and ordered workers to pay kickbacks.
The two companies and the prime contractor of the project, D & S Restoration, agreed to pay a combined $427,468.24 in restitution to the workers, plus $89,263.93 in interest, in addition to more than $100,000 in penalties and legal fees to the city. The comptroller’s office also debarred Green Builders and Amin Electrical, meaning no city agency can hire them or subcontract them.
Parks and the comptroller’s office began investigating in late 2017 after they received worker complaints. The investigation was complicated by the sheer volume of falsified records and because both firms refused to cooperate, said Claudia Henríquez, the comptroller’s labor bureau chief.
Two Green Builders operators pleaded guilty in 2024 to federal conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges and were sentenced to probation. Those charges were not related to the city’s wage theft investigation, said Henríquez.
The firm has a long history with the city. In 2020, NYCHA awarded Green Builders a $10.4 million no-bid contract for emergency COVID ventilation efforts at a number of public housing complexes — but the work was held up after the Department of Investigation found the firm had a history of alleged safety and financial problems, THE CITY reported at the time.
Attempts to reach Green Builders and Amin Electrical through their publicly listed phone numbers were not successful. A person who answered the phone number for D & S Restoration hung up after a reporter for THE CITY identified herself.
Prevailing wages and benefits are rates employers must pay workers on publicly funded construction and building service projects, set and enforced by the city comptroller. Workers on public projects often don’t know that they may be entitled to higher pay under prevailing wage standards, which makes it easy for employers to exploit them.
“Creating and improving park spaces is essential to the well being of New Yorkers, and it’s also imperative that contractors follow the law when working on these projects,” Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura said in a statement. “We were proud to collaborate with the comptroller’s office on this investigation and grateful that hardworking New Yorkers will be getting the proper wages they deserve.”
Amin Electrical and Green Builders submitted affidavits purportedly signed by employees stating that they had been paid the prevailing wage. But in sworn testimony as part of the comptroller’s investigation, workers said they did not sign those affidavits, and were actually paid daily rates far below the required minimum, according to documents reviewed by THE CITY.
One Green Builders worker, whose name and other identifying details were redacted, said he was paid $225 per day on the playground renovation; the comptroller’s office told THE CITY he was supposed to be earning $84.63 an hour before overtime, which would have equaled easily hundreds more per day than he was given.
“I participated in (labor) work concrete work as well as carpenter and demolition as asked at my job I was paid at the rate of $225/day,” one worker wrote in a hand-written sworn testimony from 2019, which noted he was not paid for overtime and did not receive pay stubs. “I have never signed any affidavit.”
Green Builders received $365,000 for the Hunts Point Playground project from taxpayer coffers and Amin Electrical received $350,000, comptroller records show.
The comptroller’s office announced settlements against four other employers on Thursday, including a Bronx shelter operator that failed to pay its cleaning, maintenance and security staff the prevailing wage from 2015 to 2017. That company was ordered to pay $250,000 in back pay to more than 60 workers.
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