Business Pleads Guilty To Faking Docs With Wantagh School District: Nassau DA

MINEOLA, NY — A Freeport construction company pleaded guilty on Wednesday to falsifying paperwork with the Wantagh Union Free School District, prosecutors said.

GTX Construction Associates Corp. was sentenced to a $1,000 fine and a conditional discharge.

Under the New York State Labor Law, the felony conviction and its principal Giovanni Napolitano from performing any public work contracts in the state for five years, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said.

"It is essential that the companies our school districts trust to perform work are operating honestly and legally," Donnelly said. “GTX Construction Associates Corp filed fraudulent surety bond paperwork with the Wantagh Union Free School District purporting to be from a company that was in actuality no longer performing that service."

Separate Nassau County District Attorney investigations led to the recovery of $60,000 in underpaid prevailing wages from both a Texas-based company and a Long Island-based company.

According to the charges, on October 22, 2022, Napolitano entered a public work contract with the Wantagh Union Free School District for masonry restoration at the Mandalay Elementary School.

Almost immediately upon the start of the project, the Wantagh assistant superintendent for business determined that GTX performed substandard work and terminated the contract. The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office investigation revealed that GTX filed a forged and falsified surety bond with the school district.

John McNamara, Superintendent of the Wantagh Union Free School District said: "We thank District Attorney Donnelly for pursuing this issue. The contractor presented falsified documents to our district, and we, fortunately, uncovered this before the district suffered any financial loss."