STILLWATER, N.Y. - A Saratoga County contractor has been arrested and charged with stealing over $1 million in wages from his employees and falsifying payrolls for more than 30 public works projects over the past few years.
Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy says that 41-year-old Jason Rich, of Mechanicville, owner of J. M. Rich LLC in Stillwater, employed
carpet tile installers on 30 public work projects from Saratoga County to
Oswego County from August 2008
to September 2010. Murphy says that Rich allegedly paid his workers far less than the legally required wage rate for such public projects.
Rich then allegedly filed false payroll statements with the various schools,
hospitals and a county jail the work was being done on. These false payrolls meant that these government
funded agencies paid him for the work, assuming that the correct pay
was going to the workers, when Rich allegedly stole the money, totaling more than $300,000, intended
for his employees.
Murphy also says Rich allegedly took over $700,000 worth of wages for 14 employees who had spent hours loading and unloading the company trucks and
traveling the often hundreds of miles each way to and from the public work job
sites.
"This is a case involving numerous
hard-working individuals who trusted the defendant to compensate them
fairly," Murphy said. "Instead, the employees were taken advantage of and have suffered
a significant loss of wages. My office does not tolerate this kind of criminal
behavior and looks to hold the defendants accountable for their actions."
The case was referred
to the Saratoga County District Attorney by the New York State Department of Labor's Office of
Special Investigations.
Rich is charged with 14 counts of Grand Larceny 3rd-degree, all felonies, 350 counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing 1st-degree, all felonies, 2 counts of Failure
to Pay Prevailing Wage, both felonies, and
14 counts of Failure to Pay Wages in Accordance With the Labor Law, all misdemeanors. He pleaded not guilty in the Town of Malta court Tuesday morning. Bail was set at $200,000.
Rich faces up to seven years in state prison if convicted.
Jason Rich
NEWS10 ABC
