Bay Shore Man Underpaid Workers, Submitted Fake Payrolls: DA

LONG ISLAND, NY — A Bay Shore man pleaded guilty on Friday to underpaying workers and submitting false payrolls for a public works project in East Hampton, Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini said.

William G. Prophy, LLC, doing business as WGP Contracting, Inc., pleaded guilty to first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, a felony, according to the DA.

In 2017, WGP Contracting, Inc. was awarded the bid for the East Hampton Town Hall to replace the cedar shake shingle roof, Sini said. During the course of the project, the company paid several employees as laborers instead of roofers, which must be paid at a higher rate in accordance with New York State's prevailing wage schedule, the DA said.

The company submitted certified payrolls to East Hampton officials that contained the misclassifications and falsely asserted that the workers had been paid properly, Sini said. An investigation also revealed evidence that the company had similarly misclassified several workers, some of whom were assigned to the same project as well, as lower wage rate laborer during a public works project to renovate toll booths at Jones Beach State Park, according to Sini.

According to the plea deal, for both projects the company has forfeited $32,553.81 to the DA's office, to be distributed to the defrauded workers — and was required to pay a fine of $2,500, the DA said.

The company will also be required to remit an additional $10,110.82 in restitution to the New York State Department of Labor for further disbursement to the workers, Sini said.

The company's owner, 58-year-old William Proefriedt, of Bay Shore, also signed a stipulation of wrongdoing with the New York State Department of Labor admitting to willfully failing to pay the prevailing wage and barring Proefriedt and the company from bidding on public works projects for five years, the DA said.

Proefriedt was also arrested in 2018 and charged with first-degree offering a false instrument for filing in connection with his bid on the 2018 Pyrrhus Concer House restoration public works project in Southampton Village, Sini said.

Proefriedt submitted a signed letter to the Southampton Village attorney stating that employees of his company, William G. Prophy, LLC, would perform all plumbing, electrical, and HVAC work on the project and that they were licensed to do so, when in fact they were not, Sini said. That matter has been dismissed in satisfaction of this week's plea and the stipulation of wrongdoing with the Department of Labor, according to Sini.

"The consequences of these unscrupulous business practices are two-fold: on the one hand, you have employees not being paid their fair share for the work they are doing, which is not only illegal but immoral," Sini said. "On the other hand, you have bad actors winning contracts over upstanding companies by cutting corners at the expense of their workers and under-bidding the competition. My Office has made the investigation and prosecution of labor-related crimes a priority so that we can protect both the individual workers and the responsible business owners who make up the outstanding labor force in our region. I thank the New York State Department of Labor for their continued partnership in investigating labor-related offenses and making sure workers are paid what they deserve."