October 25, 2005

DILLON ANNOUNCES:

ARRESTS OF CONTRACTORS DEFRAUDING DAY LABORERS AND THE CREATION OF SPANISH SPEAKING UNIT & HOTLINE

Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon announced today that the DA’s Criminal Frauds Bureau has arrested three contractors for defrauding numerous day laborers out of their earned wages.

According to Dillon, "My office has charged Charles Cobbs, 44, of 203-18 116 Avenue, St. Albans New York; Christopher Galanis, 38, of 3945 Hahn Avenue, Bethpage; and Nicholas Fey, 38, of 123 Beach Avenue, Bellmore. All three individuals were contractors who took advantage of day laborers in Nassau County, promised them pay for their work and only made partial payments in some cases and no payments in other cases in return for their hard days work."

"Charles Cobbs, owns and operates Cobbs Construction, which performs a variety of home improvement work including, cement work, driveways, patios, brick and stone work at private homes in Nassau and Queens Counties," said Dillon. "Cobbs employs day laborers in Nassau County to do this work. He promises to pay them approximately $100-$150 per day. After they have performed the work for him, Cobbs does not pay them or he pays them only part of the wages he owes them. Four individuals were owed a total of $7,160. In addition, Cobbs Construction is not licensed to do business in Nassau County. Cobbs has been charged with Failure to Pay Wages in Accordance with the Definitions of the Labor Law, an Unclassified Misdemeanor, and Operating a Home Improvement Business Without a License, a Class A Misdemeanor."

"Chrsitopher Galanis, owns and operates the corporation CWG Landscaping Inc., which performs landscaping at private homes in Nassau and Suffolk County," said Dillon. "Galanis employs day laborers in Nassau County to do this work and promises to pay them between $100 and $150 per day. After they have performed the work for him, he does not pay them or he pays them only part of the wages he owes them. One victim was owed a total of $5,400. Galanis has been charged with Operating a Home Improvement Business Without a License, a Class A Misdemeanor and Failure to Pay Wages in Accordance with the Definitions of the Labor Law, an Unclassified Misdemeanor."

"Nicholas Fey, owns and operates A-1 Construction, which performs a variety of home improvement work including, siding, window, and roof repairs at private homes," said Dillon. "Fey employs day laborers in Nassau County to do this work. He promises to pay them between $100 - $200 per day. After they have performed the work for him, he does not pay them or he pays them only part of the wages he owes them. Three men were owed in excess of $7,000 for work they had performed. Our investigation revealed that Fey was receiving substantial payments for jobs that he had been subcontracted during this time period. Fey has been charged with Failure to Pay Wages in Accordance with the Definitions of the Labor Law, an Unclassified Misdemeanor."

"My office investigated these cases with the assistance of the Workplace Project in Hempstead," Dillon continued. "The Workplace Project in Hempstead is a non-profit organization that helps Spanish speaking members of the community. With their assistance we were able to investigate the many allegations of non or partial payments on behalf of the hard working victims who were cheated out of their earned pay. The Workplace Project did an excellent job in protecting the members of the Spanish speaking community that fell victim to the defendants in these cases."

"I believe the defendants in these cases took advantage of individuals whom they felt were less likely to go to the authorities to report such crimes," said Dillon. "I would like to thank the Workplace Project for their assistance and I look forward to working with them in the future."

"In recent years Nassau County’s Spanish speaking population has grown to over 10% of the total population, and in an effort to better serve the needs of Nassau’s increasingly diverse community, I have created a Spanish-Speaking Fraud Unit,"said Dillon. "This Unit will be responsible for operating a Spanish language hotline for Spanish speaking residents to report incidents of fraud. The Unit will be staffed by Spanish Speaking DA Investigators, and will be under the supervision of a Spanish Speaking Assistant District Attorney."

"With the help of the Spanish language hotline, which will operate 24 hours a day, Spanish speaking residents can report incidents or complaints of fraud in Spanish, thus ensuring that their complaints will be addressed by District Attorney Denis Dillon’s Office. The Spanish-Speaking Hotline number is (516) 227-7700."

The defendants will be arraigned later today in First District Court in Hempstead. The charges are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.