Tariq Mahmood And His Company Admitted To Willfully Failing To Pay Prevailing Wages And Benefits On Bronx Public School Project

Schneiderman: Workers Must Be Treated With The Dignity And Respect They Deserve

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the guilty plea of Tariq Mahmood, 56, and his company Peral General Contractor LLC, for failing to pay more than $100,000 to masonry workers on an exterior renovation project at P.S. 7X in the Bronx from June 2012 through October 2012. Mahmood and his company were indicted earlier this year in Bronx Supreme Court, part of an ongoing focus on widespread allegations of wage theft at public works projects in New York City which resulted in the arrests of five contractors on April 8, 2015.

“Time and time again, we have continued to send a message that wage theft is a serious crime,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “Workers must be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve, and we will not hesitate to bring criminal charges against those who cheat their workers.”

NYC Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peterssaid, "Prevailing wage theft is a scourge on public construction, cheating workers and undermining safety. These convictions are important since they will bar this company from doing publicly-funded business in New York State. DOI will continue to work with the Attorney General's Office to root out and stop this crime."

“The actions of this contractor were reprehensible. It is essential that all of our projects meet the highest standards both for workers and for the students we serve,” said Deputy Chancellor Schools Elizabeth Rose. “I want to thank the Attorney General for his work and for his partnership in this investigation.”

An investigation by the Attorney General’s office, along with the New York City School Construction Authority and the New York City Department of Investigation found that Mahmood and his company failed to pay five workers for their work on a renovation project at P.S. 7X in the Bronx.

Under the civil provisions of the New York State prevailing wage law, general contractors are financially responsible for underpayments of wages and benefits by their subcontractors. In this case, the general contractor Dean Builders Group, Inc. of Great Neck, New York entered an agreement with the New York City School Construction Authority on January 14th, 2015 agreeing to pay wages and benefits owed, which together totaled $114,944.88 for this specific project.

Tariq Mahmood pleaded guilty to one count of Failure to Pay Prevailing Wages and Benefits a class A misdemeanor, and was sentenced to a conditional discharge and 50 hours of community service. Peral General Contractor LLC, located in Fresh Meadows Queens, also plead guilty to one count of Failure to Pay Prevailing Wages and Benefits, a class D felony, and was sentenced to a conditional discharge as well as debarment, which prohibits the company from bidding on or being awarded any public work projects in the State of New York for 5 years.

The Attorney General thanks the Inspectors General for the School Construction Authority, the New York City Department of Investigation, and their staffs for their assistance on this investigation and prosecution.

The case was investigated by William O’Brien and Lee Callier of the School Construction Authority, Office of the Inspector General under the supervision of First Assistant Inspector General Gerard McEnroe and Inspector General Maria Mostajo. The Department Investigation’s effort to combat prevailing wage violations was overseen by Senior Associate Commissioner Michael Carroll and Associate Commissioner William Jorgenson.

Attorney General investigators working on these cases are Elsa Rojas, Sixto Santiago, Edward Ortiz, Ismael Hernandez, Brian Metz, Michael Leahy, Naomi Jimenez, Michael Yun and Senior Investigators Salvatore Ventola and Lawrence Riccio with assistance by Supervising Investigators John M. Sullivan and Michael Ward. The investigation was conducted under the supervision of Supervising Investigators Luis Carter, under the direction of Deputy Chief Investigator John McManus. The Attorney General’s Investigations Bureau is led by Chief Investigator Dominic Zarrella.

The criminal case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney Generals Matthew Ross and Benjamin Holt under the supervision of Richard Balletta, the Attorney General Labor Bureau’s criminal section chief, with assistance from Stephanie Swenton, the Deputy Bureau Chief of the Criminal Enforcement and Financial Crimes Bureau.

The Labor Bureau Chief is Terri Gerstein. The Executive Deputy Attorney General for Social Justice is Alvin Bragg and Kelly Donovan is the Executive Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice.