AG: Long Island Landscaping Company Owner Didn't Pay Workers

The owner of a Stony Brook landscaping company was arrested on Monday morning and charged with failing to pay his employees in full and defrauding the state.

Richard Orvieto, the owner of Double “O” Landscaping Inc., which provides landscaping and light construction services on Long Island, is accused of failing to pay more than $13,000 in wages to three former employees and with defrauding the state unemployment insurance system of almost $12,000 by paying wages in cash off-the-books and thereby failing to pay required unemployment insurance contributions, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said Monday.

Between Aug. 24, 2011 and Jan. 31, 2014, Orvieto hired workers to perform landscaping services but didn’t pay them overtime at one and a half times their regular rate of pay when required, Schneiderman said.

Three former workers also claim that in late 2013 Orvieto did not them any wages at all for their last week of work.

“Wage theft is a serious crime,” Schneiderman said in a news release. “My office will take aggressive action, including criminal charges, where appropriate, against business owners who fail to properly compensate their workers, and who try to avoid other laws by paying workers off-the-books.”

Orvieto and Double “O” Landscaping Inc. were due to be arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip Monday. Orvieto and his company are each charged with multiple counts of first degree falsifying business records, first degree offering a false instrument, failure to pay wages and willful failure to pay unemployment insurance contributions.

If convicted, Orvieto faces a jail sentence of up to four years. He and his company would also face maximum fines, in addition to restitution, of $20,000 for each count.