Glen Oaks Man Pleads Guilty To $1.5M In Wage Theft: DA

GLEN OAKS, QUEENS — A Glen Oaks businessman pleaded guilty to a labor law violation after prosecutors accused him of cheating workers out of more than $1.5 million in wages.

Jagdeep Deol, 36, and his company Laser Electrical Contracting secured millions of dollars worth of contracts to perform electrical work in New York City public schools, which comes with a requirement to pay workers the equivalent of union wages.

Instead, Deol paid 11 employees "substantially less" than that from 2014 to 2018 and kept the remainder for himself, the Queens District Attorney's Office said in a news release Tuesday.

Deol pleaded guilty to a violation of New York State's prevailing wage law — a misdemeanor — and a felony charge of failing to pay a prevailing wage on behalf of his company.

“Earning a prevailing wage is vital for so many construction employees working on public works projects and the fair payment of that wage is protected by law," Department of Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnett said in a statement.

Under the terms of the plea deal, Deol will be required to pay full restitution to his workers and reimburse the city for the $160,000 cost of its investigation — or face jail time.