Brooklyn contractor slapped with probation, pays up for cheated workers
A contractor who underpaid workers by about $50 per hour for restoration work on two Brooklyn housing developments was slapped with three years’ probation at Brooklyn Supreme Court on Monday and was forced to pay back his employees.
Mehdi Dayan, 75, secured probation after he returned $650,000 in restitution last week. Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun sentenced Dayan over prosecutors’ recommendations for five years’ probation.
In his guilty plea to second-degree grand larceny and first-degree scheme to defraud, the contractor admitted to underpaying 27 workers and getting them to lie about it to inspectors, according to court documents.
For exterior restoration and roofing replacement at the Brown Houses in Crown Heights and Glenmore Plaza in Brownsville, Dayan was required by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to pay employees from $61.50 to $82.31 an hour. They were actually paid between $15 and $25 an hour.
With the help of co-defendants, Mohammed Miah, 60, and Sharifullah Sowpon, 41, Dayan instructed workers to tell NYCHA integrity monitors they were being paid between $54 and $74 an hour. The trio then told its outside payroll service to create records that reflected the required amounts.
“This case is especially outrageous in that the workers were told they were being cheated and were forced to lie about their wages to integrity inspectors in order to keep their jobs,” District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “Such abuse of hardworking laborers will not be tolerated in Brooklyn and will be criminally prosecuted.”
Miah and Sowpon previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor violations and were sentenced, along with Dayan’s company, EEC Group Tech Inc., to conditional discharge.
The employees for the work between April 29, 2014 and Nov. 19, 2015 included mason tenders, roofers, bricklayers, carpenters and stone masons.