Construction Supervisor on Maryland Projects Admits to Stealing Wages

A York, Pennsylvania construction supervisor pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme that defrauded construction workers of wages on University of Maryland projects, officials have reported.

According to Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown, a judge in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City sentenced Fredy Arellano for one count of felony theft scheme of $25,000-$100,000. Arellano was sentenced to five years of incarceration, with all but 90 days suspended and to be served on home detention, and three years of supervised probation. Arellano already paid full restitution of $63,157 in advance of his guilty plea.

According to prosecutors, Arellano was the field superintendent for a construction company headquartered in Baltimore City. Arellano solicited Congratulations Construction Inc. to provide drywall carpenters and laborers on two construction projects in Prince George’s County: the University of Maryland Capital Region Cancer Center and the University of Maryland Field Hockey and Women’s Lacrosse Complex.

On these projects, employers were required to pay their workers the prevailing wage determined by the Commissioner of Labor and Industry and to submit certified payroll demonstrating that they had done so but the attorney general found that although payroll records submitted to the state claimed that the workers were paid the prevailing wage, these claims were false.

Instead, using varying methods, including employing false payroll names, Arellano and the owner of Congratulations Construction took the money that was due to the workers, and then paid them at a substantially lower rate than the rate required by law and certified to the state.

Arellano’s share of the proceeds of this scheme was $63,157. Jose Walter Marquez Rivera, the owner of Congratulations Construction Inc., was sentenced in a related case last year.

Topics Fraud Maryland Construction