Long Island Landscaping Company Owner Sentenced for Defrauding Employees, State

The owner of a Stony Brook landscaping company who pleaded guilty to failing to pay his employees in full and defrauding the state has been sentenced, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced Wednesday.

Richard Orvieto, the owner of Double “O” Landscaping Inc., was sentenced to pay restitution of $13,032 to three former employees and $19,856.64 to the New York State Department of Labor, Schneiderman said.

In addition to paying restitution, Orvieto, who was arrested in June and faced up to four years in jail, must pay a mandatory fine under the Labor Law, will be on probation for three years, and must complete 50 hours of community service.

Orvieto failed to pay more than $13,000 in wages to three former employees and defrauded 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.

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 claimed that in late 2013 Orvieto did not them any wages at all for their last week of work.

Orvieto pleaded guilty to failure to pay wages under the New York Labor Law, a misdemeanor, and Double “O” Landscaping pleaded guilty to falsifying business records in the first degree, a class E felony.

“It doesn’t matter if you own a restaurant or a landscaping company—you must pay your workers the money they are owed and pay them on the books,” Schneiderman said Wednesday. “My office will continue to crack down on wage theft and return earnings that rightfully belong to workers.”